Japanese energy companies INPEX and JERA have signed an agreement to conduct a joint study to assess the feasibility of establishing a carbon capture and storage (CCS) value chain from Japan to Australia.
The project would involve the capture of CO2 in Japan and its transportation to Australia for storage.
In Australia, INPEX was awarded a greenhouse gas (GHG) storage assessment permit in the Bonaparte Basin off the northwestern coast of the Northern Territory with TotalEnergies CCS Australia and Woodside Energy in 2022.
According to INPEX, this project provides an opportunity to prove a large-scale carbon storage site for the Darwin-based, carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) hub proposed by the Northern Territory Government and has the potential to become one of the largest CCS projects in the world.
INPEX-operated Ichthys LNG would be a natural user of this CCS solution as it seeks to reduce its GHG emissions.
By collaborating with JERA, INPEX expects to help build a global CCS value chain and contribute to the transition to a decarbonized society.
On the other hand, JERA has been considering the feasibility of capturing carbon from its domestic business and transporting CO2 for storage outside Japan, where reservoirs with potentially large storage volumes are expected to be found.
An example of such an effort includes the recent agreement with Petronas to evaluate the feasibility of separating and capturing CO2 emitted by JERA in Japan and then transporting it to Malaysia for storage.