Abu Dhabi has started to look at new opportunities to reduce its carbon emissions using carbon capture technology. The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company or ADNOC claims to consider partnerships in CCS as the world is under pressure to increase climate change mitigation efforts.
“We continue to see it as a game changer, and we are very ready to partner with others within and even outside our industry to enable wider CCS adoption.” said the company’s Managing Director Al Jaber at a virtual CERAWeek panel session last week. Al Jaber is also the United Arab Emirates Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology.
“There is no credible way of reaching global climate goals without seriously advancing and ensuring the widespread adoption of carbon capture and storage,” said Mr Jaber. Right now the company hasn’t announced what type of partnerships it’s trying to form. However, Al Jaber has also mentioned exploring the potential of new fuels. He called fuels like hydrogen a “great promise as a close to zero-carbon fuel”.
ADNOC Leads Abu Dhabi Carbon Capture
A driver for the company is its mission to cut its carbon intensity by a further 25% over the next 10 years. That goal is in line with the United Arab Emirates’s climate targets. Since oil production capacity is projected to increase in the coming years, the company extends the capacity of the plan to cut emissions. It aims to capture 5 million tons of CO2 every year by 2030.
To achieve that, the company partnered with oil major Total in November 2020. They will explore joint research and development in the areas of CO2 emission reductions and CCUS. The companies signed an agreement deemed to bring together the best-in-class low carbon technologies from ADNOC and Total.
ADNOC also says its Al Reyadah – Abu Dhabi carbon capture facility, can capture 800,000 tons of CO2 annually. Al Reyadah is the world’s first fully commercial CO2 capture project from the iron and steel industry for oil fields.
The CCS technology is still being evaluated and debated for its environmental, economic, and technical aspects. However, this new technology is seen as a game changer among CO2 emissions reduction approaches across the world and the Middle East.
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