Malaysia Awards First Offshore CCS Assessment Permit

Petronas CCS Ventures (PCCSV) has been granted an offshore assessment permit for carbon capture and storage (CCS) in the Duyong area by the Malaysia Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage (MyCCUS) agency.

This is the first offshore assessment permit issued under Malaysia’s recently enacted Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage (CCUS) Act.

The permit grants the exclusive rights to conduct comprehensive offshore geological assessments over the Duyong field offshore Peninsular Malaysia. This permit facilitates the ongoing collaboration between PCCSV, TotalEnergies, and Mitsui and Co. to evaluate the Duyong area’s potential as a carbon storage site.

The Duyong area is part of the planned Southern CCS offshore hub development, which was created under a key principles agreement (KPA) signed in July.

“The granting of the offshore assessment permit by the MyCCUS agency represents a critical milestone for the Duyong CCS project,” said Emry Hisham Yusoff, CEO of PCCSV, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Petronas. “This permit allows our collaboration with TotalEnergies and Mitsui to advance to the next phase of technical studies and evaluations, bringing us closer to realizing Duyong’s potential as a safe and commercially viable carbon dioxide storage site.”

The KPA enables PCCSV, TotalEnergies, and Mitsui to lay the foundation for the frontend engineering design phase for the Duyong area, Petronas said, adding that the partnership paves the way for the first-of-its-kind integrated CCS solution for industries in the Asia Pacific region.

Petronas currently operates one of the largest offshore CCS projects in the world, the Kasawari CCS project, which is expected to reduce CO₂ volume emitted via flaring by 3.3 mtpa. The Kasawari project stores CO₂ in depleted gas reservoirs.

In August 2024, Petronas signed a joint study and development agreement with the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company and carbon storage specialist Storegga to evaluate the CO₂ storage potential of saline aquifers in the Penyu basin, offshore Peninsular Malaysia.