Saudi Aramco will begin its works on a permanent carbon dioxide storage facility from 2026, as the state-owned oil giant seeks to reach its goal of net-zero emissions by 2050.
The storage will be the largest of its kind, according to a Bloomberg report.
Through this development, Aramco aims to capture carbon dioxide emissions from industrial activities, that convert natural gas into hydrogen.
The emissions will be permanently stored in a deep underground reservoir, that previously produced oil and gas.
The project is part of Aramco’s larger goal to become a global leader in producing hydrogen.
The first phase of the project near the industrial city of Jubail, on the east coast of Saudi Arabia, will be able to store between 5 million and 9 million tons of carbon dioxide per year, Aramco’s vice president of chemicals, Olivier Thorel told Bloomberg.
Thorel added this is equivalent to the emissions from about 1 to 2 million gasoline-powered passenger vehicles driven over a year.
Aramco will need massive carbon capture and carbon storage facilities to do this in “a truly planet friendly way.”
The process of converting natural gas to hydrogen emits carbon dioxide, but these emissions can be trapped — resulting in what’s known as blue hydrogen.
This hydrogen can be used to make blue ammonia — a compound that’s much easier to ship than hydrogen. The blue ammonia can later be converted back into hydrogen.
Aramco wants to show that “on a life-cycle ‘well to gate’ basis” the oil company will have one of the “lowest carbon-intensity ammonia available” for export to the various markets — whether it’s for chemical, fertilizer or energy purposes, Thorel told Bloomberg.
“I think it’s a way for us to properly get credit for the investment we’ve made to manage carbon dioxide in a well-integrated way — but that’s not the end game,” Thorel said adding “the end game is to invest in a dedicated facility for carbon sequestration.”
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