More Japanese firms eyes Malaysian CCS prospects

Another group of Japanese private-sector firms have partnered with Malaysia's state-owned oil Petronas to create a carbon capture and storage (CCS) value chain between the two countries.

Japanese conglomerate Eneos Holdings' subsidiaries, including refiner Eneos and its affiliate upstream developer JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration, along with trading house Mitsubishi, on 1 March signed an initial agreement with Petronas' subsidiary Petronas CCS Solutions. They will jointly explore the possibility of collecting carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the Tokyo bay area and shipping and storing them in Malaysia, aiming to start operations by the April 2030-March 2031 fiscal year.

The study assumes the capture of CO2 emissions from various industries in the Keihin and Keiyo areas along Tokyo bay, aiming to initially accumulate 3mn t/yr and eventually lift volumes to 6mn t/yr.

Eneos will mostly focus on separating and capturing CO2 emitted from its refineries, as well as exploring developing liquefied CO2 transportation, while JX will develop and evaluate CCS storage sites in Malaysia, including securing storage sites and their costs. Mitsubishi will work on CO2 accumulation and its transportation.

Building CCS value chains between Japan and Malaysia have gained momentum, after Japan's trade and industry ministry and state-owned energy agency Jogmec signed an initial agreement with Petronas in September 2023 to begin discussing a regulatory and general framework on CO2 exports from Japan and storage in Malaysia.

Japanese upstream company Japex, engineering firm JGC and shipping company K-Line and Petronas CCS Ventures agreed with Malaysia's Sarawak-owned energy firm Petroleum Sarawak on 26 February to study CCS business opportunities using a depleted gas field in block M3 offshore Sarawak for CO2 injection.

More involvement in overseas CCS projects is inevitable for Japan because of its limited domestic storage sites. Tokyo aims to add 6mn-12mn t/yr of CO2 storage capacity domestically and overseas from 2030, targeting 120mn-240mn t/yr by 2050. The government previously projected Japan could store up to 70pc of its forecast 240mn t/yr of CO2 emissions in 2050.

By Motoko Hasegawa