Carbon capture, utilization & storage

How does CCUS work?

CCUS technologies capture CO₂ emissions at source or directly from the air. CO₂ emissions are then transported away and stored deep underground or turned into useful products.

Capturing carbon has been used for decades to help improve the quality of natural gas, but pioneering new technologies may mean we can now potentially remove and sequester CO₂ permanently. Moreover, we are exploring new ways to add value to waste CO₂ by turning it into marketable industrial and commercial products.

Enhanced oil recovery

Carbon capture and sequestration is the process of capturing waste CO₂ from large sources, such as power plants, before depositing it underground to prevent it from entering the atmosphere.

At one of the Middle East’s largest CO₂ capture and storage demonstration projects, we’re capturing CO₂, injecting it in our reservoirs, and testing the feasibility of enhancing oil recovery in the process. 

Today, we have the capability to capture and process 45 million standard cubic feet of CO₂ at our NGL plant in Hawiyah. The captured CO₂ can be piped 85 kilometers and injected into the Uthmaniyah oil reservoir, sequestering CO₂ while also helping to maintain pressure in the reservoir and to recover more oil.

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) in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.

Contributing to technological change in transport

Aramco is working with a number of partners to develop Mobile Carbon Capture and storage technologies for cars and trucks. Today, the latest variant of the technology can capture and store up to 40% of the CO₂ in their exhaust emissions on-board, before unloading the gas at fuel stations for sequestration or recycling into other forms of material or energy.

Our efforts to help reduce CO₂ emissions in the automotive sector are further evidenced by the work of our global research network. For example, we are also advancing automotive technologies that, in combination with innovative new fuels, can reduce emissions and improve efficiency for light-duty vehicles, while maintaining performance.

While others view CO₂ and other GHG emissions as waste products, they can be useful materials to create potential additional value streams, such as manufacturing feedstock.