UAE's ADNOC, TotalEnergies sign agreement on CCS, hydrogen

The UAE's Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. has signed an agreement with French major TotalEnergies to explore joint collaboration in carbon capture and storage and low-carbon hydrogen as OPEC's third biggest oil producer seeks to meet its net zero emissions pledge by 2050.

The agreement was signed during French President Emmanuel Macron's visit to the UAE, the Abu Dhabi government's media office said Dec. 4 on Twitter. No other details were given on the cooperation agreement.

ADNOC, the UAE's biggest energy company, currently has the capacity to capture 800,000 tons of CO2 annually. The company plans to expand the capacity sixfold by capturing CO2 from its own gas plants, with the aim of reaching 5 million tons of CO2 capture each year by 2030.

TotalEnergies is developing two carbon capture projects in Europe.

The Northern Lights project, in which Shell and Equinor are partners, will develop new carbon capture projects in Norway and elsewhere in Europe. The project focuses on transporting and storing carbon emissions produced by cement factories and aims to create 1.5 million tons of carbon storage capacity per year.

The Net Zero Teesside Project, in which oil majors BP, Eni, Equinor, Occidental Petroleum and Shell are partners, is the first commercial-scale, fully integrated CCUS project in the UK, according to TotalEnergies.