Carbon Capture Needed to Achieve Climate Goals: Oil Majors

Carbon capture pilot plant in Squamish B.C., Canada. Image Credit: Carbon Engineering

A group of 13 major oil and gas firms who have come together under The Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI) are investing in carbon capture, use and storage (CCUS) technology.

With the latest wave of environmental activism putting climate change firmly back in the public eye, the group say the tech is "a crucial tool to achieve net zero emissions."

OGCI's members together account for 32% of global oil and gas production and include BP, Saudi Aramco, Petrobras, Eni, and Total.

"A lot of people don't even know what CCUS is. I think the world is going to hear more and more and more about it," BP CEO, Bob Dudley, was quoted by Reuters as saying.

"I don't think we can meet the Paris goals without CCUS."

Last week OGCI launched its CCUS KickStarter initiative it says will help decarbonize multiple industrial hubs around the world, starting with hubs in the US, UK, Norway, the Netherlands, and China.

The aim of the KickStarter is to create the necessary conditions to facilitate a commercially viable, safe and environmentally responsible CCUS industry, with an early aspiration to double the amount of carbon dioxide that is currently stored globally before 2030, it says.

The key barrier to carbon capture historically has been the cost, but Canada-based Carbon Engineering earlier this year told Ship & Bunker the headline cost for its direct air capture technology is $100-$150 per tonne of CO2 captured.

With the maritime industry having been told that radical, expensive, and unproven technologies are required in order to realize its IMO2050 emissions reduction ambitions, there is an obvious attraction to the idea of achieving decarbonization targets using current oil-based fuels.