OGCI’s report looks at the value and opportunities for deployment of CCUS in Saudi Arabia, as it aims to realize a circular carbon economy.
The report outlines the country’s experience to date with CCUS and its potential as a decarbonization tool for domestic power, desalination and heavy industry, which account for two-thirds of Saudi Arabia’s carbon dioxide emissions. In addition, it explores the value for Saudi Arabia of leveraging CCUS to accelerate diversification, creating jobs and shifting exports away from reliance on oil and gas and towards low-carbon products and services.
In the short and medium term, these include exports of low carbon hydrogen, as well as low carbon petrochemicals, steel and aluminium, enabled by CCUS. Long-term opportunities include using carbon dioxide as a feedstock for synthetic fuels and using negative emissions technologies to remove carbon dioxide form the atmosphere.
The report outlines business models that could be relevant for scaling up CCUS deployment, highlights potential hub locations in the country and raises the opportunity for collaboration across the Gulf states to link hubs into a larger CCUS network – a topic OGCI is exploring further this year.
