Saudi Aramco is making progress with a project to develop a carbon capture and storage infrastructure in Saudi Arabia that will tap carbon dioxide (CO2) discharge from its gas processing plants.

Aramco is expected to issue the main tender for the Accelerated Carbon Capture & Sequestration (ACCS) project to contractors in April, according to sources. It issued a solicitation of interest (SoI) document for the project in January.

The Saudi energy giant plans to develop the project in a joint venture and has brought onboard US oil field services provider SLB (formerly Schlumberger) and Germany-headquartered Linde, the world’s largest industrial gas producer, as partners.

The ACCS project aims to capture carbon dioxide from Aramco’s northern gas plants of Wasit, Fadhili and Khursaniyah, as well as from the operations of its subsidiary Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic) and Saudi industrial gases provider Air Products Qudra.

UK-headquartered Wood Group has performed the front-end engineering and design work on the planned project.

ACCS project scope

The ACCS facility will capture streams from the acid gas enrichment units of the Wasit, Fadhili and Khursaniyah plants. The CO2 will be compressed, dried and fed into the collection pipeline system.

The network will also absorb additional CO2 volumes from Sabic and Air Products Qudra after the initial compression and drying of the CO2 discharge at their respective facilities.

The combined gaseous CO2 stream would then be compressed at the centralised compression facility located at Fadhili into dense phase CO2 and sent into the main pipeline for sequestration.

The main pipeline network will transport the CO2 about 240 kilometres away for injection into the Jaham-Duhul-Maqlah saline aquifer.

The ACCS project scope finishes at the injection well control skids. Injection wells and other associated units are outside the scope of the ACCS project, Aramco said in the SoI document.

The ACCS project is expected to have a planned capacity of about 9 million tonnes a year, with the collection pipeline system designed to support future expansion of the scheme.

Aramco held an early engagement meeting on 20 February with interested contractors to discuss the project. Contractors that attended the meeting include:

• GS Engineering and Construction (South Korea)
• Hyundai Engineering (South Korea)
• JGC Corporation (Japan)
• Larsen and Toubro Energy Hydrocarbon (India)
• Saipem (Italy)
• Tecnicas Reunidas (Saipem)
• Tecnimont (Italy)

Aramco sustainability measures

To meet its target of attaining net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 and in line with Saudi Arabia’s net-zero emissions by 2060 target, Saudi Aramco is taking steps to make its core operations more environmentally friendly.

Aramco does not face the same intense pressure from climate activists and investors to slash carbon and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and tackle climate change as some of its international counterparts.

However, as the main engine of Saudi Arabia’s economy, it plays a key role in helping the kingdom achieve its Cop26 environmental commitments.

Aramco is advancing the adoption of mechanisms such as carbon capture utilisation and storage (CCUS). Another major area is its downstream business.

Oil refineries and gas processing plants are significant sources of methane, CO2, GHG, sulphur dioxide and hydrogen sulphide emissions. By modernising these key assets, Aramco can improve its environmental credentials while helping the Saudi economy cut down on pollution from the use of refined oil products and processed gas.

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The state energy enterprise has undertaken a major scheme similar to the ACCS project to modify existing sulphur recovery units (SRUs) at its key gas processing plants in the kingdom.

Aramco expects third-party investments of up to $2bn in the desulphurisation programme, which entails building downstream tail-gas treatment (TGT) facilities to collect and process tail gas discharged from SRUs at identified gas plants.

The facility is to be developed on a build, own and operate (BOO) or build, own, operate and transfer (BOOT) basis, making it one of Aramco’s initial public-private partnership exercises, if not the first, in its main oil and gas business.

Bidders are currently working towards a 15 March deadline to submit proposals for the TGT development scheme.