Mitsui & Co., CO2 underground storage development 15 million tons per year in the Asia Pacific
A natural gas drilling facility in Thailand where Mitsui is investigating the feasibility of CCS (provided by Mitsui & Co.)
Mitsui & Co. will secure 15 million tons of annual CCS interest by 2035, mainly in the Asia-Pacific region. Decarbonization of Japan as a whole will require about 120 million tons per year in 2050, of which it will account for more than 10%. There are few suitable sites for CCS in Japan, where depleted oil fields are often diverted. Undertaking everything from CO2 capture to transportation and storage, and supporting the decarbonization of Japanese companies.
CCS stands for "Carbon Capture and Storage". CO2 is collected by reacting the exhaust gas emitted from factories and power plants with a liquid agent, etc., and stored underground under high pressure. Conventionally, it was used as a method to increase production in oil and gas fields where production has decreased.
In recent years, it has been positioned as an important means of decarbonization in Europe, the United States, and Japan. Electric vehicles (EVs) will become popular in the future, but thermal power generation that emits CO2 will be indispensable for economic activities. There are a series of large-scale development plans for CCS around the world.
Mitsui & Co. will continue to acquire CO2 storage interests in multiple gas fields, etc., mainly in the Asia-Pacific region, where it is easy to transport CO2 from Japan. From 2022, the company began conducting feasibility studies with major overseas energy companies. Indonesia's state-owned Pertamina will investigate the storage capacity of the country's largest onshore oil and gas field in central Sumatra. In addition, with the Malaysian national oil company Petronas, we will verify the amount of storage and the route of the CO2 carrier with the aim of receiving CO2 from outside the country.
Furthermore, in Thailand, there are plans to start demonstration experiments of CCS at gas fields owned by the Petroleum Corporation of Thailand (PTT). British Shell has also launched a survey in the Asia-Pacific region, including Japan. Until around 2024, we will search for underground reservoirs suitable for CCS and confirm the effectiveness of underground survey technology.
Mitsui & Co. has not disclosed the estimated storage capacity of individual projects, but plans to secure interests of 15 million tons per year in the Asia-Pacific region by 2035 through a series of initiatives.
Mitsui & Co. plans to start CCS services for Japanese companies and others in 2030 by utilizing the acquired interests. We are envisioning a system in which CO2 emitted from power plants and steelworks is collected, transported as liquefied CO2 on a carrier, and stored underground. Managing Executive Officer Toru Matsui says, "We will make CCS services one of our focus areas and contribute to decarbonization."
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry estimates that at least 120 million tons of CCS will be required annually by 2050 to make Japan carbon neutral. In Japan, a demonstration experiment of injecting CO2 into a reservoir in Tomakomai, Hokkaido, began in 2016, but only a limited number of concrete efforts have been made. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry aims to commercialize CCS domestically by 2030, but unlike other countries, there are few depleted gas fields, and securing suitable sites is an issue.
On the other hand, the countries on the Asia-Pacific coast, where gas fields and oil fields are being actively developed, have abundant data on underground structures to determine whether CO2 can be stored. It is easy to guess the suitable land for CCS, and Mitsui & Co. believes that it will be easy to expand its interests efficiently.
There are also challenges to the spread of CCS. One is the establishment of technology to efficiently recover only CO2 from exhaust gas. The concentration of CO2 in the exhaust gas differs depending on the power plant or factory, and it is necessary to find a suitable method for each. The cost of the recovery process is high, and reduction is essential.
In Europe, the United States, Australia, and other countries, governments are preparing support measures such as subsidies for CCS operators. It seems that Southeast Asia will also need such support measures.
According to the Global CCS Institute, an Australian think tank, there are about 30 CCS projects in operation around the world, and more than 160 large-scale development projects currently underway. The United States has a large-scale CCS project under the seabed in the Gulf of Mexico, and Norway is proceeding with a plan to temporarily store CO2 collected from European countries on land and then store it underground. The UK plans to set up CCS in various parts of the country.
Among general trading companies, Mitsubishi Corporation is also working with Mitsui & Co. to investigate suitable sites off the coast of Australia. Marubeni will participate in the CCS project for CO2 emitted from coal-fired power plants in Australia with J-Power, and accumulate knowledge in preparation for commercialization in Japan. Itochu will work with Nippon Steel and other companies on a demonstration experiment to transport liquefied CO2 by sea. The plan is to build a dedicated ship to transport the fish from Kyoto Prefecture to Hokkaido.
