Abu Dhabi forms partnership for carbon capture project

11 November 2013

Masdar and Adnoc partnership aims to expand programme to other fields and industrial facilities

Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar) is developing its carbon capture usage and storage project (CCUS) in a joint venture with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc), the two firms revealed at Adipec 2013 – the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference – in the UAE’s capital on 10 November.

The $122m project, which will be located next to Emirates Steel Industries’ operations in Mussafah, will capture 800,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) a year and is expected to be completed by early 2016.

The CO2 will be transported through a 50-kilometre pipeline network and injected into reservoirs at the onshore Rumaitha oil field, displacing the use of natural gas for enhanced oil recovery (EOR).

Director-general of Adnoc Abdulla Nasser al-Suwaidi said the project would be expanded to capture gas from other energy-intensive industries and other fields would benefit from the programme.

“We are aiming to achieve a 70 per cent of recovery factor in the long term. Not only at Rumaitha and Bab. There is potential… at different fields, both onshore and offshore,” Al-Suwaidi told delegates. “We will be the first country to inject CO2 offshore.”

“In the end, we will need billions of cubic feet of CO2. Each case will be different because of source of CO2 and properties or reservoirs,” he added.

Adnoc and Masdar announced that the project’s engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract had been awarded to UAE-based Dodsal, which MEED revealed in September.

The project will free up the natural gas traditionally used to pressurise oil wells and aid oil recovery to instead be used for traditional power generation and water desalination. 

The CCUS facility will consume about 20MW of power, Adnoc and Masdar said.

The scope of the project includes CO2 compression and dehydration facilities, a CO2 metering and pipeline interface, necessary utilities and support services, a cold vent relief system and control, maintenance and administration buildings.

The partners said the project is the Middle East’s first commercial-scale CCUS facility and the only carbon capture and storage (CCS) project outside of North America.

“The capture technology is not new, but Abu Dhabi provides a unique proposition. The source is not far from destinations and CO2 will be used to liberate gas,” said Al-Suwaidi. “We are very optimistic for a future network.”

 

 

A MEED Subscription...

Subscribe or upgrade your current MEED.com package to support your strategic planning with the MENA region’s best source of business information. Proceed to our online shop below to find out more about the features in each package.