Abu Dhabi expects its first carbon capture usage and storage (CCUS) project to come on stream in the first quarter of 2016, according to the project manager.

The project will have the capacity to capture 800,000 tonnes a year of carbon dioxide from Emirates Steel’s operations in Abu Dhabi and inject the gas into the onshore Rumaitha oil field to aid oil recovery.

The engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the CCUS unit was awarded to UAE-based Dodsal in 2013 with Alsa Engineering & Construction selected to build the injection facilities at Rumaitha.

“Dodsal [and Alsa] will complete the project in 2016… by the first quarter [of 2016] we will actually be injecting the CO2,” said Dipak Sakaria, project manager at Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) said at MEED’s Abu Dhabi conference on 8 December.

Sakaria said that one of the biggest challenges would be developing technology to capture different grades of carbon dioxide from different facilities including power stations.

The CO2 injection plant will free up the natural gas traditionally used to pressurise oil wells and aid oil recovery to, instead, be used for power generation and water desalination.

The project coincides with the phase-three development of the Rumaitha field. Adco recently awarded a consortium of South Korea’s GS Engineering and Dodsal the EPC package to expand the capacity of Rumaitha along with the nearby Shanayel field.

The scheme is a joint venture of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) and Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar).

In November 2013, director-general of Adnoc, Abdulla Nasser al-Suwaidi, said the project would be expanded to capture gas from other energy-intensive industries and other oil fields would benefit from the programme.