Korean Gov’t launches CCS R&D project in East Sea’s Ulleung Basin
Ulleung Basin was classified as a promising area for CCS in Korea according to the results of a joint study
As the importance of carbon neutrality has been growing globally, major Korean companies are focusing on the carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) business. The idea is to collect carbon dioxide (CO₂) emitted into the atmosphere from fossil fuels to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and then secure a place to store it permanently, BusinessKorea reported.
CCUS is a concept that encompasses carbon capture and utilization (CCU) and carbon capture and storage (CCS), and its basic premise is carbon capture. It is filtering carbon from factory or power plant exhaust and processing it into a liquid state that can be transported, then utilizing or storing it.
According to industry sources on Aug. 13, the Korean government recently launched research and development for a CCS project in the Ulleung Basin in the East Sea with Korea National Oil Corp., SK Group, and POSCO Group. The Ulleung Basin is an oceanic basin located where the East Sea meets the Korea Strait.
Ulleung Basin was classified as a promising area for CCS in Korea according to the results of a joint study by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries in 2021. The carbon storage capacity of Ulleung Basin was estimated to be about 193 million tons, results say. This is 2.5 times the size of POSCO’s annual carbon emissions (78.5 million tons) as of 2021.
Ulleung Basin is also the site of a CCS demonstration project utilizing Donghae Gas Field, which is being promoted by Korea National Oil Corporation and Hyundai Engineering & Construction. It is the first CCS project in Korea and is scheduled to run from 2025 to 2030. Donghae Gas Field, located 58 kilometers southeast of Ulsan, is the country’s only petroleum resources production facility and stopped producing gas at the end of 2021. It will store 1.2 million tons of carbon annually.
Korea National Oil Corporation has been preparing for the CCS business for several years. In July 2020 it established the CCS Business Team and strengthened its professional staff. Starting with Donghae Gas Field, the company plans to discover two more carbon storage sites in Korea. Through the Gwanggaeto Project, a mid- to long-term continental shelf development plan announced in June, Korea National Oil Corp. has set a goal of securing 4 million tons of carbon storage per year by 2031.
In the meantime, major Korean energy companies have been promoting projects overseas due to a lack of gas fields to utilize as carbon storage. SK E&S is developing carbon storage in Australia and East Timor. It plans to unload liquefied carbon dioxide in Darwin, Australia, and then permanently store 3 million tons per year in an offshore gas field in East Timor.
Earlier this year, SK earthon, an oil development company spun off from SK innovation, partnered with UK-based CCS specialist Azuli to develop CCS projects in Australia and North America. POSCO International has been analyzing the economic feasibility of CCS projects utilizing offshore gas fields in Australia since 2022. It is also conducting technical evaluation and economic analysis for CCS commercialization with Australia’s Senex Energy, which it acquired in 2022.
In Malaysia, energy affiliates of Korea’s major business groups such as Samsung, SK, Lotte and GS are jointly promoting a CCS project. Samsung Heavy Industries & Construction, SK energy, SK earthon, Lotte Chemicals, GS Energy, and Malaysia’s state-owned energy company Petronas are participating in the project led by Samsung Engineering. The project also recently added Korea National Oil Corporation, Hanwha, Air Liquide Korea, and Shell.
The Global CCS Institute forecast that the global carbon capture and storage market will grow by more than 30 percent annually, reaching 7.6 billion tons of carbon captured by 2050. As of September 2022, the amount of carbon that could be stored through global CCS projects in operation and development was 244 million tons per year, up 44 percent year on year. The number of commercial projects is also expected to surge from 29 in 2021 to 135 in 2030.
Analysts predict that CCS projects will become increasingly active in Korea as the Korean government promotes carbon neutrality in the mid- to long term. The government has included CCS in its 2030 NDC and 2050 carbon neutrality scenarios and cited the enactment of a CCUS law and securing and commercializing CCUS technology as major policy issues. Recently, Korea’s carbon emission reduction target using CCUS was revised upward from 10.3 million tons to 11.2 million tons in 2030.