Global energy giants ExxonMobil and Shell announced on Friday (March 1st) that they will collaborate with Singapore to develop cross-border carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects.
The subsidiaries of these two companies in Singapore - ExxonMobil Asia Pacific Limited and Shell Singapore Limited - have teamed up to form the S-Hub consortium, which will collaborate with the Singapore government as the main developer of CCS projects to reduce local carbon dioxide emissions.
In terms of emission reduction, CCS technology is currently one of the few validated and safe solutions. This technology is suitable for large-scale reduction of carbon dioxide emissions in heavy industrial sectors such as steel, petrochemicals, and cement.
In a joint statement, the three parties stated, "S-Hub and the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) signed a memorandum of understanding in December 2023 to coordinate the planning and development of the CCS project, with the hope that by 2030, the project can capture and permanently store at least 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide annually."
This project will store the carbon dioxide emitted domestically in Singapore deep underground or beneath the seabed. The statement added that the storage location will undergo strict analysis to ensure suitability before selection.
Both ExxonMobil and Shell have rich experience and profound professional knowledge in developing CCS projects. According to Bernhard Koudelka, Vice President of Global CCS at Shell, the company has captured over 10 million tons of carbon dioxide so far.
This cooperation may be the latest initiative of the Singapore authorities towards sustainable development. Lim Wey Len, Executive Vice President of EDB, stated that CCS has the potential to become a key pathway for decarbonization in Singapore, especially for industries such as energy and chemicals, electricity, and waste that are difficult to reduce emissions.
In addition, according to another document released by EDB on its official website on Friday, the agency stated that it "supports enterprises in transitioning towards a low-carbon and sustainable future.".
EDB launched the Energy Efficiency Grants (EEG) for the first time in 2022, aimed at supporting the sustainable development path of enterprises through joint investment in energy-saving equipment. Since its launch, nearly 2000 companies have used EEG.
The document states that "we are strengthening the EEG scale to include more industries and providing additional support to some companies with more ambitious emission reduction plans.".