Carbon management

Energy is an essential enabler of human progress. Advancing human progress and economic development while tackling the global climate issue is the great challenge of our time.

The transition to a low carbon future will be a complex process. Alternatives will take significant time and sustained investment to meet a meaningful share of the rising global energy demand.

To maintain energy security and meet the needs of a rising global population hydrocarbon-based energy sources will be counted on to meet the bulk of the world’s energy demand well into the future.

At Saudi Aramco, we are committed to playing our part by employing an interdisciplinary approach to innovative and cost-effective solutions for carbon management, focusing on CO₂ capture and sequestration, CO₂ emissions reduction and converting emissions to value.

Carbon capture and enhanced oil recovery

We believe capturing and storing CO₂ could potentially contribute to significantly reducing global emissions.

Carbon capture and sequestration is the process of capturing waste CO₂ from large sources, such as power plants, storing it and depositing it underground so it will not enter the atmosphere.

At one of the Middle East’s largest CO₂ capture and storage demonstration projects, we’re proving it’s possible to capture CO₂, inject it in our reservoirs, and test the feasibility of enhancing oil recovery in the process.

Every day, we have the capability to capture and process 45 million standard cubic feet of CO₂ at our plant in Hawiyah.

The captured CO₂ is then piped 85 km to the ‘Uthmaniyah oil field and injected into the oil reservoir, sequestering the gas while also helping to maintain pressure in the reservoir and recover more oil. Since the initial injection of CO₂ in 2015, we have doubled oil production rates from four of our wells.

We are currently evaluating the project for potential future application at other facilities and oil fields in the Kingdom.

In 2016, our work on the carbon capture and enhanced oil recovery project was recognized at the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference with the top award for Best Oil & Gas Health, Safety and Environment Project. It also won the Energy Institute Environment Award.

This pioneering work in carbon capture and sequestration is just one element of our Corporate Carbon Management Technology Roadmap, guided by our Advanced Research Center of our Exploration and Petroleum Engineering Center (EXPEC ARC) based in Dhahran.

Building on our already successful track record, we are actively finding new ways to reduce even more emissions across the breadth of the hydrocarbon value chain — from production to consumer end use.

Our efforts to reduce CO₂ emissions in the automotive sector are evidenced by the work being carried out by our global research network.

We are advancing automotive technologies that, in combination with innovative new fuels, can make a substantial impact on reducing emissions and improved efficiency in light-duty vehicles, while maintaining expected performance for millions of drivers around the world.

While others may view CO2 and other GHG emissions as waste products; we see them useful materials we can use to create potential additional value streams for our company. We convert captured CO2 and other gases into useful industrial products and manufacturing feedstocks.