DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Oil wealthy Abu Dhabi and its nationwide oil firm are eyeing new partnerships in carbon seize know-how as rising oil costs put a renewed deal with large oil’s local weather mitigation methods.
“There isn’t a credible approach of reaching world local weather targets with out critically advancing and making certain the widespread adoption of carbon seize and storage,” Sultan Al Jaber, UAE Minister of Business and Superior Expertise and Abu Dhabi Nationwide Oil Firm (ADNOC) Managing Director and Group CEO stated over the weekend.
Carbon seize and storage (CCS) know-how goals to scale back the extent of carbon that is launched into the ambiance via typical energy era and industrial processes by storing waste carbon in a spot the place it will not enter the ambiance, sometimes underground. Lengthy-term carbon storage is a reasonably new idea, and its environmental, financial and technical facets are nonetheless being debated.
ADNOC, which pumps greater than 3 million barrels of oil a day, has pledged to decrease its greenhouse fuel emissions and increase CO2 storage. It joins an extended checklist of oil majors which have come under increasing pressure to speed up climate efforts as increased costs put the business on a extra sustainable path.
We proceed to see it as a sport changer, and we’re very able to associate with others inside and even exterior our business to allow wider CCS adoption.
Sultan Al Jaber
UAE Minister of Business and Superior Expertise and ADNOC Managing Director
“This goes past simply the oil and fuel business,” Al Jaber stated. “I see a possibility and an essential position for carbon seize and storage throughout sectors which can be laborious to decarbonize and that use probably the most vitality, reminiscent of heavy business, manufacturing and chemical compounds,” he added.
Al Jaber made the feedback final week at a digital CERAWeek panel session alongside Vicki Hollub, CEO of Occidental, and vitality economist Dan Yergin, Vice Chairman of IHS Markit.
Oil costs spiked on Monday, with Brent crude topping $70 after an attack on Saudi oil facilities and after OPEC and its allies determined to maintain manufacturing cuts in place in April. Larger costs are a boon for the important thing oil exporters of the Gulf, like Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which nonetheless rely closely on oil export revenues to drive financial progress. Oil prices collapsed below zero and into negative territory in April final yr.
Carbon partnerships
ADNOC not too long ago partnered with French oil main Complete to discover alternatives in CO2 emission reductions and CCS. It comes because the UAE goals to scale back its carbon depth an additional 25% over the following decade.
“We proceed to see it as a sport changer, and we’re very able to associate with others inside and even exterior our business to allow wider CCS adoption,” Al Jaber stated.
ADNOC, which has plans to aggressively ramp up oil manufacturing capability in coming years, says it can seize 800,000 tons of carbon dioxide yearly via its Al Reyadah facility in Abu Dhabi. As oil manufacturing capability grows, it additionally plans to increase the capability of this system to seize 5 million tons yearly by 2030.
“Carbon seize, utilization and storage (CCUS) might want to kind a key pillar of efforts to place the world on the trail to net-zero emissions,” the Worldwide Power Company stated in a publication final yr. “After years of sluggish progress, new funding incentives and strengthened local weather targets are constructing new momentum behind CCUS,” it added.
Al Jaber, who’s additionally the UAE’s particular envoy for local weather change, did not say what kind of partnerships the corporate was searching for to kind. ADNOC not too long ago stated its additionally exploring the potential of latest fuels reminiscent of hydrogen, which Al Jaber stated reveals “nice promise as a near zero-carbon gasoline” that could possibly be produced at scale as a part of ADNOC’s present hydrocarbon worth chain.
Demand restoration
Al Jaber additionally expressed optimism on the optimistic affect of vaccines and stimulus applications on the worldwide financial restoration, which feeds immediately into oil demand.
“Trying regionally, we see that one of many main powerhouses of the worldwide economic system, China, has already recovered in GDP phrases, and is again to strong progress,” he stated. “We count on one other key participant within the world economic system, the U.S., to return to its pre-Covid degree of GDP this yr and proceed rising into 2022,” he added.
Al Jaber additionally pointed to the bettering restoration in oil demand, which fell to lows of round 75 million barrels per day on the peak of world lockdowns. “International consumption is presently round 95 million barrels per day and we count on it to rise above pre-Covid ranges by the tip of this yr,” he stated.
