ADNOC and Santos embarking on carbon capture and storage with net zero at the heart of decarbonization quest

UAE’s energy giant Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) has joined forces with Australia’s Santos to pursue a pathway towards the potential development of a joint global carbon management platform in a bid to support the decarbonization journey throughout Asia-Pacific and accelerate net zero goals.

To this end, the two players signed a strategic collaboration agreement focused on potential collaboration on carbon capture technologies, global CCS projects, and innovative solutions for shipping and transporting CO2. This enables the companies to work together to advance CCS technologies that are deemed necessary to accelerate the decarbonization of industry worldwide.

In addition, the duo will explore the development of a carbon dioxide shipping and transportation infrastructure network to enable heavy-emitting sectors to capture, ship, and permanently store CO2.

Musabbeh Al Kaabi, ADNOC’s Executive Director, Low Carbon Solutions and International Growth, commented: “ADNOC continues to build on its pioneering role in safely capturing and permanently storing carbon dioxide as we accelerate toward net zero by 2045 and target CCS capacity of 10 million tons per annum (mmtpa) by 2030.

“Through this partnership, ADNOC and Santos will work together aiming to scale up the carbon management technologies of the future while leveraging our combined expertise and experience in safely transporting, capturing, and storing carbon to help markets in the Asia-Pacific decarbonize.”

Furthermore, ADNOC’s decarbonization steps include the Al Reyadah facility, which is operated by the company. This has the capacity to process 800,000 tons of CO₂ per year. The firm also recently announced one of the largest carbon capture projects in the Middle East and North Africa region at the Habshan facilities, and a carbon capture project at its Hail and Ghasha offshore development, taking its committed investment for carbon capture capacity to almost 4 mtpa. 

Alan Stuart-Grant, Energy Solutions Executive Vice President, Santos, remarked: “Large scale-up of CCS is required to meet the world’s climate objectives and companies like Santos and ADNOC have the technology, infrastructure and knowledge to be able to deliver low-cost CCS and low-carbon energy competitively on a global scale.

“There is an enormous opportunity for traditional energy suppliers like Australia and the UAE to be at the forefront of helping regional decarbonization through utilization of our natural competitive advantages in carbon storage and energy supply chains. Through this collaboration, we will support the transition toward a low-carbon future that is both reliable and affordable.”

This agreement follows ADNOC’s recent agreements to explore CCS and direct air capture (DAC) projects in the UAE, and internationally, and supports the company’s wider carbon management strategy. The UAE’s giant is targeting a carbon capture capacity of 10 mtpa by 2030, equivalent to taking over 2 million internal combustion vehicles off the road. 

Just like ADNOC, Santos is also actively seeking to lower its carbon footprint with CCS. In line with this, the Australian giant and its joint venture partners inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in August 2023 with Timor-Leste’s TIMOR GAP to explore partnership opportunities for a proposed CCS project at a gas and condensate field in the Timor Sea.

Additionally, Santos and SK E&S are pooling resources on cross-border CCS solutions, aiming to position Australia at the top of the list of countries working to assist Asia in lowering its carbon footprint.