French energy major TotalEnergies has signed an agreement with Petronas and Mitsui for the development of a carbon storage facility in Malaysia.

The partners will assess a number of CO₂ storage locations in the Malay Basin, including both depleted offshore fields and saline aquifers.

Additionally, they will identify the most effective technical ways to transport CO₂ from industrial hubs in the region to Malaysia and create a business structure for the commercialisation of carbon storage services in the country.

TotalEnergies chairman and CEO Patrick Pouyanné said: “We will bring to the partnership our strong CCS [carbon capture and storage] expertise, anchored in Europe with a first integrated project in Norway due to start next year and several other projects that will contribute to meeting our carbon storage capacity target of ten million tonnes per year by 2030.”

The creation of a CCS value chain for hard-to-abate industries in Asia will necessitate a specialised legislative environment, as well as a sizeable financial commitment, the French company noted.

Petronas president and group CEO Tan Sri Tengku Muhammad Taufik said: “The strategic partnership demonstrates Petronas’ commitment to position Malaysia as a regional CCS hub to capture opportunities in the energy transition, with a focus on reducing the carbon footprint of our operations to continue delivering the energy needs of today.”

Mitsui & Co representative director, senior executive managing officer Toru Matsui confirmed: “Mitsui will utilise its expertise in the oil and gas upstream activities and extensive business networks to jointly work with Petronas and TotalEnergies to develop a CCS value chain project in Malaysia.”

In August 2022, the Australian Government selected TotalEnergies Japan’s Inpex and Woodside Energy Group to look into the viability of storing greenhouse gases off the north-west coast to cut emissions.