Japan’s Mitsui & Co. is searching for carbon storage sites in the Asia-Pacific region, where it plans to store 15 million tons of CO2 per year for other Japanese businesses.
Japan’s geography does not provide it with many options to store captured CO2 emissions, which is why local companies have been looking into burying their emissions elsewhere.
Thus, in the case of Mitsui, the Japanese giant has taken things a notch further and is looking to secure rights to store the carbon dioxide of other companies, as well.
In doing so, and by providing a full service that also includes capturing and transporting those emissions, the trading house aims to help companies in its home country decarbonize their operations and reach their climate objectives.
The Asia-Pacific region is close enough to Japan to make transportation comparatively easy.
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And earlier this year, Mitsui already joined forces with several energy corporations, such as Indonesia’s state-owned Petramina and Malaysia’s Petronas, to start feasibility studies in the region, and is closely working with Shell to locate suitable storage sites.
The Japanese trade house is also planning to begin a feasibility study in Thailand, at the gas fields operated by PTT group.
Once the company has successfully secured storage rights, its carbon capture, transportation and storage service is set to kick-off by around 2030.
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“We will contribute to decarbonization by making CCS services one of the areas that we focus on,” said Toru Matsui, executive managing officer at Mitsui.
According to the nations’ Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the path it has outlined for reaching carbon neutrality by 2050, the country is expected to capture and store a minimum 120 million metric tons of CO2.
If the project goes as planned, Mitsui will account for over 10% of that CO2 capture and storage target.
