This week the MENA (Middle East North Africa) region is hosting its second ever Climate Week, which is an important opportunity for the region to convene and discuss its climate priorities and actions. This convening is a particularly critical step forward for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries — where economic growth has been closely tied to fossil fuel production — to implement action around climate.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE, in particular, have set goals of achieving net zero CO2 emissions by 2060 and 2050 respectively. Both countries have also laid out plans for power sector decarbonisation through the rapid expansion of renewable energy and development of nuclear power.1 Carbon capture and storage (CCS) must also play a key role in reaching these climate targets on schedule, particularly as a means of addressing hard-to-abate emissions from industries such as petrochemicals, cement, and steel. CCS can also contribute to accelerating decarbonisation of the power sector and the conversion of hydrocarbon fuels to low-carbon alternatives. The IPCC’s latest report has made clear that carbon capture and storage is a critical element in climate change mitigation pathways that avoid massive reductions in energy demand.
The Gulf region offers an attractive environment for rapid scale up of CCS, due to the extensive suitable geology for CO2 storage and the presence of National Oil Companies (NOCs) which possess the requisite economic resources and expertise to meet this challenge. Both Saudi Arabia and the UAE have a clear opportunity to become world leaders in demonstrating and deploying carbon capture and storage, not only for the attainment of domestic decarbonisation goals, but to help drive down technology costs, demonstrate new technologies, and progress CCS for faster adoption globally.
Like other major hydrocarbon-producing regions, the Gulf can deploy its resources to start returning carbon to the Earth. This blog summarises the current status of CCS in Saudi Arabia and the UAE and lays out some key steps they can take to maximise the decarbonisation opportunity for these technologies.
Figure 2 shows the distribution of point source emissions in the two countries, highlighting the concentrations of power sector and oil and gas sector emissions along the Persian Gulf, as well as in other urban clusters such as Riyadh and Jeddah. Cement plant emissions are much more dispersed.
For comparison, Figure 3 shows that sedimentary basins with geological storage potential are also mainly located around the Persian Gulf, as well as in Saudi Arabia’s Northern and Southern deserts. The greatest potential storage capacity is associated with the Rub’al Khali sedimentary basin, which covers the south of Saudi Arabia and all of the UAE. There is more uncertain potential for saline storage around the Red Sea and via mineralisation in specific rock formations found in both countries.
Expansion of sectoral performance standards may represent a route that can be rapidly implemented in the region. In the medium term, demand for various low-carbon goods can help support CCS in industry by establishing a price premium for these products. Domestic demand can be created by stipulating the use of low-carbon materials in public infrastructure projects. There will be a fast-growing international market for such low-carbon products and the region can position itself as a credible exporter of low-carbon steel, cement, and fertiliser, as well as fuels with minimised embedded emissions.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have significant domestic emissions associated with their carbon-intensive power sectors, major petrochemical industries, and production of other raw materials. Both countries have taken early steps in CCS project demonstration, but must now ensure these technologies are rapidly scaled up to make a meaningful contribution towards their climate goals. This will require a clear political strategy, which draws on international experience but remains flexible to a rapidly evolving industrial and technological landscape. Adopting a climate-focused approach to CCS can signal real ambition to the world.
1 National Renewable Energy Programme (2019): 58.7 GW wind and solar by 2030; UAE National Energy Strategy (2023): 19.8 GW ‘clean energy’ by 2030.
2 BP (2022) Statistical review of world energy.
3 IEA (2022) Energy statistics data browser; Our World in Data (2022) CO2 country profiles.
4 OGCI (2022) CCUS deployment challenges and opportunities for the GCC.
5 https://www.catf.us/ccsmapmena/
6 https://www.utilities-me.com/news/all-new-power-plants-in-saudi-arabia-to-add-carbon-capture-facility
7 OGCI, GCCSI, Storegga (2022) CO2 storage resource catalogue cycle 3 report.
8 CaptureMap by Endrava (accessed 2023).
9 GCCSI (2022) 2022 status report.
10 https://www.aramco.com/en/news-media/news/2023/aramco-announces-full-year-2022-results
11 European Commission (2023) A proposal for a Net Zero Industry Act.
12 Stuart Jenkins et al. (2021), ‘Upstream Decarbonization through a Carbon Takeback Obligation: An Affordable Backstop Climate Policy’, Joule 5, no. 11 (2777–96).
13 CATF analysis, on the basis of an estimated 220 MtCO2/year from oil and gas production and processing emissions across both countries, estimates of the costs to apply CCS to NG processing, LNG production, and oil refining, and assuming an average $60/t for the abatement of O&G production operations through electrification and other means.
14 IEAGHG (2023) Integrating CCS in international cooperation and carbon markets under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.
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