SK E&S has launched a partnership with the government of Timor-Leste to accelerate its global carbon capture and storage (CCS) business.
SK E&S announced on November 22 that it has signed a Mutual Cooperation Partnership (MCP) with the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources of Timor-Leste to promote the timely conversion of the Bayu-Undan depleted gas field to CCS and explore additional CCS business expansion opportunities.
SK E&S and the Ministry of Petroleum of Timor-Leste have agreed to become a first mover in the global CCS project by converting the Bayu-Undan gas field, which is nearing the end of production, into a carbon dioxide storage facility.
Accordingly, SK E&S plans to work with the Ministry of Petroleum to utilize the existing infrastructure of the Bayu-Undan gas field to convert it to CCS, which is expected to give momentum to the ongoing Boryeong Clean Blue Hydrogen project in South Korea.
The two sides also agreed to establish specific institutional support measures such as licensing for the smooth import and export of CO2 between the two countries, conduct joint research to identify additional CCS business expansion opportunities in Timor-Leste, and operate energy industry training programs through bilateral personnel exchanges.
In particular, the Timor-Leste government plans to prepare relevant laws and regulations for CCS conversion of the Bayu-Undan depleted gas field within the next year and provide policy support for the future transfer of CO2 generated by SK E&S's Boryeong Blue Hydrogen Production Facility to the country.
The Bayu-Undan gas field will soon end production and undergo CCS conversion, transforming it into a storage facility capable of processing 10 million tons of CO2 per year. SK E&S plans to capture CO2 from natural gas extraction at the Barossa gas field in Australia, which is currently under development, as well as CO2 from domestic blue hydrogen production in the future, and store it permanently at the Bayu-Undan CCS.
CCS is a commercially available technology that can capture most of the CO2 from natural gas production in gas fields, as well as the CO2 from the blue hydrogen production process. In fact, many countries in Europe and the United States have been utilizing CCS technology in natural gas production for a long time.
In particular, considering the domestic environment where CO2 storage is relatively scarce, the CCS project cooperation with Timor-Leste is expected to help enhance the eco-friendliness of the LNG business and promote the clean blue hydrogen business in the future.
The Bayu-Undan depleted gas field has sufficient underground CO2 storage space, and it is likely that the CO2 processing capacity will be expanded to more than 10 million tons per year if additional facilities are invested in the future. Therefore, it will be possible to actively respond to the CCS demand that is expected to explode in Oceania and Asia in the future.
