China’s carbon capture and storage news today are piling up. The largest Chinese offshore oil and gas producer CNOOC Ltd is launching its first offshore carbon capture and storage (CCS) project in the South China Sea.
The project is located at the company’s Enping 15-1 oilfield complex at Pearl River Mouth Basin of the South China Sea. It is designed to store 300,000 tons of CO2 per year into seabed reservoirs at underwater depths of 80 meters. The total storage capacity comes at more than 1.46 million tons of carbon dioxide.
The magnitude of 300,000 sequestration capacity is also the equivalent of planting 14 million trees. According to Zhang Wei, chief engineer of CNOOC Shenzhen, the scheme involves separating oil from the carbon dioxide and then dewatering and compressing it before it is injected into the reservoir.
CNOOC Ltd announced last week that it would dedicate up to 10% of annual spending to green energy by 2025 as part of the company’s efforts to reduce its carbon footprint. Sinopec – another Chine petroleum major, is also planning a project in east China. It is estimated to inject 10.68 million tons of carbon emissions into an oilfield over the next 15 years.
As China is the world’s biggest carbon dioxide emitter, it needs to take serious and urgent measures in order to reach carbon neutrality. The country vowed to be carbon neutral by around 2060.
A study conducted by a research institute affiliated with China’s environment ministry in July, estimates that as much as 1.82 billion tons of CO2 need to be eliminated by carbon capture and storage each year by 2060 for China to achieve that goal.
CNOOC’s first carbon capture and permanent storage project is part of the company’s green initiatives. It is one of the steps China’s climate change strategy desperately needs to reach its carbon neutrality pledge.
