Aramco has signed a shareholders’ agreement with Linde and SLB to develop Phase 1 of a carbon capture and storage (CCS) hub in Jubail Industrial City in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province. This facility as the potential to become one of the largest CCS hubs in the world.
The project complements Aramco’s blue hydrogen and ammonia programs and supports the company’s ambition to achieve net-zero Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions across its wholly owned operated assets by 2050 and to reach its interim target of reducing upstream carbon intensity by 15% by 2035, the company said in a press release in December.
“CCS plays a critical role in furthering our sustainability ambitions and our new energies business,” Ashraf Al Ghazzawi, Aramco executive vice president of strategy and corporate development, said in a news release. “This announcement represents a step forward in delivering on our strategy to contribute to global carbon management solutions and achieve our emission mitigation goals.”
Fast Track to Phase 1
Aramco expects to complete Phase 1 of the project by 2027 to store up to 9 mtpa of CO2. Of this, 6 mtpa will be allocated to Aramco's operations, while 3 mtpa will be designated for non-Aramco facilities. The captured CO2 will be transported via a pipeline network and stored underground in a saline aquifer sink, according to Aramco.
In addition to the 6 mtpa of CO2 storage to be developed at Jubail for its own facilities, Aramco plans to continue developing CCS to store an additional 8 mtpa by 2035, according to its 2023 sustainability report. Locations were not provided.
The shareholders’ agreement between Aramco, Linde, and SLB sets up a collaborative framework for developing the project by outlining ownership stakes, governance structures, financial commitments, and strategic objectives.
Under its terms, Aramco will hold a 60% equity interest in the hub and be responsible for overall project management and strategy, providing CO2 from gas processing and industrial sources, overseeing construction of infrastructure including pipelines to transport carbon to storage sites, and ensuring local regulatory compliance.
Linde and SLB will each own 20% stakes with expectations as follows:
- Linde will provide expertise in carbon capture technologies, specifically those applied to industrial processes; deliver engineering support for design and implementation of CCS systems, and act operationally across the life cycle of technologies used.
- SLB will bring its technological capabilities in energy solutions, focusing on enhancing efficiency in CCS processes; implementing digital technologies to optimize emissions measurement, reporting, and verification within the CCS framework; and providing project support, leveraging its experience in large-scale energy projects.
“Aramco’s collaboration with SLB and Linde demonstrates the importance of global partnerships in driving technological innovation, reducing emissions from conventional energy sources and enabling new, lower-carbon energy solutions,” Al Ghazzawi said. “This CCS hub is among several programs that will enable us to meet rising demand for affordable, reliable, and more sustainable energy.”
SLB announced in September 2024 that it had signed an agreement with Aramco to collaborate in developing a digital platform to enable hard-to-abate industrial sectors to collect, measure, report, and verify emissions while evaluating decarbonization options.
Startup To Trial CO2 Capture Tech
Carbon Clean, a startup headquartered in the UK, reported it had signed an agreement with two of its investors, Aramco and Samsung E&A, to demonstrate its modular CycloneCC carbon capture technology which it developed to capture CO2 from natural gas turbine exhaust streams containing as little as 4% CO2.
The trial will take place at one of the gas plants participating in Aramco’s CCS project and will enable Carbon Clean to test its claims related to the unit, which it said has a reduced footprint and lower cost when compared to existing carbon capture systems, according to a Carbon Clean news release of 4 December.
Samsung E&A will install the unit on the sales gas compressor turbine exhaust stack to provide performance data under real-world conditions, the release noted.
CycloneCC combines two technologies to intensify its CO2 capture process: rotating packed beds and a proprietary APBS-CDRMax solvent, Carbon Clean said.
