The third pillar of OGCI’s strategy focuses on acting to help society to decarbonize.
OGCI’s members have a key role in working with their customers, partners, other industries and policymakers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help accelerate the transition to a net zero society.
To help drive a broad transformation of the global energy system, OGCI member companies are investing billions of dollars in a wide range of lowcarbon technologies and solutions.
These include energy efficiency and digitalization, renewable energy, storage, bioenergy and biofuels, sustainable aviation fuels, sustainable mobility, CCUS, and direct air capture and storage (DACS).
In 2023, OGCI member companies collectively invested $29.7 billion in the technologies noted above, including acquisitions and R&D, a 15% increase compared with 2022.
This brings the total member companies have invested in these technologies since 2017, including acquisitions and R&D, to $95.8 billion.1
In addition to record levels of investment in these technologies and solutions, OGCI focused its work in 2023 and 2024 on three main tracks:
- Investigating new opportunities to drive a broader uptake of CCUS;
- Enabling the development of alternative fuels and other solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with transport;
- Advancing plans to develop a project in Brazil that would support credits from natural climate solutions.
CCUS
The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recognizes the role of CCUS technologies in reducing and removing carbon dioxide emissions and achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions cost effectively.
Governments, policy makers and key industrial players view CCUS as an essential technology that could help reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with hard-to-abate industries such as steel, chemicals and cement.
It can also facilitate the production of fuels and products such as hydrogen, and help reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with some power generation.
The build-out of CCUS infrastructure can also support the deployment of some key carbon dioxide removal technologies, such as direct air capture with storage (DACS) and bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), that can address residual greenhouse gas emissions to help achieve net zero.
OGCI member companies, with their expertise in carbon capture, CO2 injection and engineering and large project execution capabilities, are uniquely positioned to support the development and implementation of CCUS at scale.
In recent years, many oil and gas companies, including OGCI member companies Aramco, bp, Chevron, CNPC, Eni, Equinor, ExxonMobil, Occidental, Petrobras, Repsol, Shell, TotalEnergies have worked on different elements of carbon capture and storage technologies. These include retrofitting capture units to carbon dioxide streams in industrial and chemical processes to injecting carbon dioxide into depleted reservoirs and saline aquifers.
Since the 2019 launch of OGCI’s CCUS Kickstarter Initiative to unlock large-scale investment in CCUS, OGCI member companies are now actively involved in developing more than 40 large-scale CCUS hubs around the world.
These efforts represent almost half the CCUS hubs the IEA says are proposed or in development around the world.2
The CCUS hubs and direct air capture projects OGCI members are involved in have the potential to reduce and/or remove as much as 400 Mt of CO2 a year by 2030,3 equivalent to removing the UK’s emissions in 2023.4
Of these, Ravenna CCS in Italy (Eni) and Northern Lights in Norway (Equinor, Shell and TotalEnergies) started up in September. More projects are set to come online next year, including the commercial scale STRATOS direct air capture project in Texas (Occidental).
CCUS and DACS hubs with OGCI member company participation
Progress in 2023-2024
In 2023 and 2024, OGCI’s CCUS work has expanded understanding of other potential global CCUS opportunities, further updated carbon dioxide storage potential and set out pathways to use captured CO2.
Global opportunities
Since 2020, OGCI has published a number of studies detailing the potential for CCUS hubs in Saudi Arabia, China, Texas, California and for the Gulf Cooperation Council.
The studies have evaluated industrial locations for potential hubs, the CO2 storage potential, economic value to the country and identified and recommended policies that could stimulate development.
This year, reports looked at the potential in Brazil and Egypt. Forthcoming reports will focus on the Asia-Pacific region and India.
Brazil
A joint report with S&P Global found that CCUS hubs in Brazil could help:
- Capture up to 88 Mt of CO2 per year
- Contribute up to $3.2 billion to Brazil’s GDP
- Create 210,000 new jobs
- Help decarbonize Brazil’s iron, steel and ethanol industries
“This report shows there’s significant potential to develop CCUS hubs in Brazil. The opportunity extends beyond reducing emissions to include the creation of economic value and jobs, while also helping to grow carbon markets as we transition to a net-zero emissions future,”
OGCI CCUS Workstream Petrobras representative
Utilizing CO2
In 2024, OGCI published a study on the potential for utilizing captured carbon dioxide in the construction industry as a way to cure cement and as a feedstock to produce some e-fuels.5
The joint study with Boston Consulting Group identified key utilization pathways that could help play a role in broader efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The report highlighted important technical and infrastructure challenges and said that current regulation, which mostly focuses on supporting capture and/or storage, will need to be expanded to help scale up additional technologies to use the captured CO2.
CO2 storage resource catalogue
The 2024 catalogue update from OGCI, the Global CCS Institute, the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers and Halliburton brings the total number of carbon dioxide storage sites evaluated to 1,272 sites across 54 countries and takes the total aggregated carbon dioxide storage resource to more than 14 Gt.
The analysis indicated substantial storage potential that could facilitate significant progress in CCUS initiatives. However, the commercial readiness of global storage resources is still progressing through technical and commercial reviews and there is a lack of CCUS-specific regulations and policy support in many countries.
Of the global total resource identified, 626.5 Gt is classified as discovered and 3.1 Gt as commercial. Of the 54 countries assessed, only Australia, Canada, Norway, and the US include commercial resource.
The catalogue is an independent worldwide evaluation of geologic CO2 storage resources. It aims to build a global view of the commercial readiness of CO2 storage resources in key markets.
The CO2 storage resource catalogue is an ongoing project that will include six update cycles with evaluations from a different group of countries or regions each year.
The long-term aim is for the catalogue to include all regions and to be self-sustaining, meaning that project developers and researchers can input their own storage resource assessments.
CO2 storage catalogue evaluates global potential storage
- Country
- Basin
- Formation specified
- Sites
CCUS Hub Playbook update
In 2023, OGCI updated the CCUS Hub Playbook, a step-by-step best practice guide for regulators, emitters and CO2 transport and storage operators seeking to capture and use carbon dioxide in industry at scale.
The update adds sections on policy incentives by country, an overview of how different hard-to-abate sectors are using CCUS and latest CCUS hub trends in the US, Europe and Asia-Pacific.
Technical lessons
OGCI launched a new section on the CCUS Hub platform in 2023, focused on helping technical experts access and make use of detailed documentation from early movers to help accelerate the pace of CCUS deployment.
The section sets out lessons learned from leading hubs and projects and shares vital information on assessing and mitigating potential mechanical and process risks that could slow the development of a CCUS project.
The first piece covers the East Coast Cluster – a project to develop a CCUS hub located in a major industrial area in the UK – and focuses on storage issues and the technology development required for scale up.
See CCUS hub to learn more.
Reducing emissions from transport
Decarbonizing transport is critical to achieve net zero. The transport sector emits almost a quarter of total energy-related CO2 emissions.6
To help reduce emissions in transport, OGCI aims to add value by using member companies’ extensive expertise producing and supplying reliable transport fuels, including liquid and gaseous fuels for transport, that result in fewer emissions when combusted than traditional fossil fuels.
This expertise can be leveraged to support the development of alternatives such as biofuels, and synthetic fuels, ammonia and methanol for shipping, recognizing that no single solution will work across the different transport sectors – rather a range of solutions is required.
To build a foundation, OGCI has worked on a groundup examination of the opportunities and challenges of using alternative liquid fuels in existing engines, focusing on biofuels, methanol and ammonia, and synthetic fuels, either on their own or blended. OGCI has also explored innovative technologies like carbon capture and storage for shipping and studied the use of hydrogen for transport.
These studies have provided an understanding of the fuels, potential demand, sustainability, safety measures and infrastructure that would be required, focusing primarily on hard-to-abate transport sectors such as shipping, aviation and heavy-duty trucking.
The technologies and solutions in these areas are mostly proven and feasibility studies have already demonstrated that it is technically possible to use alternative fuels. The missing piece of the puzzle is deployment at scale.
OGCI is currently working to identify and remove the barriers to facilitate the deployment, scale up and successful commercialization of a range of lower emission fuels. Collaborative work across industries and value chains will be critical to achieving success in this area.
Alternative fuels
Biofuels
E-fuels
Can be used in most vehicles
Hydrogen
Can be used in light- and heavyduty vehicles and airplanes
Ammonia and methanol
Can be used in shipping
Credit Adobe Stock
Progress in 2023-2024
Shipping
- To help advance the use of bio-blended fuels in shipping, OGCI is working with companies in the value chain, including bio-oil producers, shipping companies, engine manufacturers, and standardization organizations, that can start testing the minimum amount of upgrading appropriate for such fuels to be used.
- This would provide a framework for the market, helping to drive growth.
- The coalition is expected to be up and running this year.
- The first phase of an OGCI-commissioned study looking at ammonia and methanol as fuels for deep-sea shipping has indicated potential for the two fuels. The next stage of work will evaluate regulatory and operational hurdles.
- The Onboard Carbon Capture project OGCI worked on with a consortium of companies and organizations7 found that carbon capture systems retrofitted on a recently built medium-range tanker could reduce net CO2 emissions by as much as 20% per year. See key findings here.
- To bring down the costs and facilitate the deployment/scale up of onboard carbon capture, OGCI and the Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation (GCMD) are looking at ways to bolster port infrastructure to offload, distribute and use CO2 captured on a vessel.
- As part of a two-year partnership agreement to work on a range of solutions to help reduce emissions in the shipping industry, OGCI and GCMD are also focusing on energy efficiency to reduce emissions, fuels such as ammonia, methanol and biofuel blends, and onboard carbon capture pathways.
Aviation
- OGCI is working with the Coordinating Research Council’s (CRC)8 Sustainable Mobility Committee to analyse the potential sources of captured carbon dioxide which could be used to make e-fuels.
- The study, which is expected to be published in 2025, will help identify technological gaps and suggest areas and opportunities for OGCI and the CRC to support the development of e-fuels.
- This will help enable the broader deployment of these fuels in regions such as the EU, which has mandated an increasing share of synthetic aviation fuels (requiring captured CO2) to be put on the market.
Trucking
- Hydrogen has been proposed as a replacement fuel in the heavy-duty trucking sector and can be used in both fuel cells and internal combustion engines.
- OGCI has been exploring the challenges of distribution and supply of hydrogen at scale.
- Hydrogen hubs receive regional and national support world-wide for further development.
- Although some emerging hubs will focus on local production, a number will require substantial volumes of imported hydrogen. OGCI has been evaluating how demand will be met for hydrogen from a range of sectors, including transportation, where it could be included as a potential pathway to lower emissions for trucking.
Natural climate solutions
Natural climate solutions (NCS) are complementary solutions in the energy sector decarbonization pathway.
They do not substitute the need to avoid, reuse, reduce and recycle greenhouse gas emissions. They can however contribute to greater ambition now and in the future as global energy systems are transformed, since not all emissions can be abated.
OGCI supports national strategies, policies, and initiatives that aim to scale up the use of high-quality NCS and focuses on initiatives that help ensure that natural climate solutions are used responsibly.9
Progress in 2023-2024
Supporting NCS scale up in Brazil
A core pillar of OGCI’s NCS strategy aims to support capacity-building efforts in natural climate solutions to help accelerate the adoption of high-quality NCS credits.
A key enabler to scale high-integrity carbon credits is nesting, which harmonizes accounting guidelines for GHG emissions reductions from avoided deforestation.
Currently, local states in Brazil and reach developers use different methods to assess avoided deforestation, which can lead to double counting and undermines the integrity of credits generated.
REDD+ refers to reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries. Given the importance of NCS in Brazil, and the reach of OGCI member companies, OGCI has partnered with IETA, a non-profit business group focused on enabling the use of high-quality carbon credits to achieve climate goals, to harmonize private, high-integrity NCS projects and support the growth of NCS markets in the Brazilian Amazon.
In an effort to promote alignment and harmonization between private projects and jurisdictional REDD+ programs this partnership, known as ALMA Brasil, will conduct technical analysis and dialogue to support the state of Para in northern Brazil to develop an effective nesting framework that enhances the credibility and integrity of the voluntary carbon market.
A rainforest community near Belem in Brazil’s Para state.
- OGCI Performance Data
- OGCI CCUS Hub, IEA CCUS Projects Explorer.
- Based on reported CCUS projects which average 7.5-10 Mt each. See CCUS Hub.
- The UK’s annual emissions were 379 Mt in 2023, according to The European Commission’s Emissions Database for Atmospheric Research (EDGAR).
- Carbon capture and utilization as a decarbonization lever, May 2024.
- See IEA global CO2 emissions by sector: Global CO2 emissions by sector, 2019-2022 – Charts – Data & Statistics – IEA; CO2 Emissions in 2022 – Analysis – IEA
- Consortium included Stena Bulk, The Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research, the Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation, Alfa Laval, ABS, Lloyd’s Register, Deltamarin Ltd and Seatrium.
- The CRC is a scientific research group that includes automotive manufacturers, API members and other organizations who work together to address problems of mutual interest
- OGCI Position Paper on Natural Climate Solutions.
