Jakarta — Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo on Friday launched construction of a carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS)project in West Papua province operated by BP Plc, the country’s first carbon storage project.
The CCUS project has the potential to store up to 1.8 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide, energy minister Arifin Tasrif said in a statement on Friday.
In September, an energy ministry official said BP will invest $2.6 billion in the project, with the first carbon injection expected in 2026. BP did not give an investment figure.
Indonesia is keen to develop CCUS and carbon capture and storage (CCS). It has an estimated carbon storage capacity of 8 gigatonnes in depleted oil and gas reservoirs and 400 gigatonnes in saline aquifers.
Energy ministry data shows there are currently 15 CCS and CCUS projects in various stages of preparation in the country with a combined investment of nearly $8 billion, including BP’s project.
During the same trip to West Papua, Jokowi, as the president is known, also launched construction of a fertiliser plant in Fakfak which is designed to produce 1.15 million metric tonnes of urea fertiliser and 825,000 metric tonnes of ammonia fertiliser.
($1 = 15,490.0000 rupiah)
Reporting by Bernadette Christina, Fransiska Nangoy; Editing by Kim Coghill – Reuters
