KUALA LUMPUR: Petronas, through its upstream arm, Petronas Carigali Sdn Bhd, will invest between US$500 million and US$1 billion to develop the K5 high carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration gas field off the coast of Sarawak until 2018.
For this purpose, Petronas Carigali has entered into an agreement with four companies, namely Technip Consultant (M) Sdn Bhd, UOP Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Twister BV and Generon Asia Sdn Bhd to provide the technology for the gas extraction.
Petronas Carigali head technology, technical global Dr Nasir Darman said Petronas would develop the world’s first offshore CO2 cryogenic distillation facility to enable it to recover four trillion square cubic feet (TSCF) of hydrocarbon gas from the 21 TSCF gas reserve at the field.
“The offshore cryogenic distillation facility is aimed at reducing the CO2 concentration to 6.5 per cent from 70 per cent, making it suitable for liquefied natural gas (LNG) processing,” he said at the signing ceremony of the agreement here yesterday.
Nasir said the company targeted to start extracting gas from the field in 2018.
He said the technology-centric programme for high CO2 fields would delve into both surface and subsurface designs and would be comprehensive across the value chain — for carbon separation, transportation, capture and storage.
The technologies offered are commercially viable and environmentally sustainable as the CO2 separated in the facility would be injected into the acquiefer located 2.2 kilometres below the sea bed for storage, he said.
“The K5 project will also position Petronas as a forerunner in offshore carbon capture and storage and provide a stepping stone for a greener oil and gas industry as no contaminations will be emitted into the atmosphere, with zero venting and flaring,” he said.
Nasir said the success of the K5 field development would pave the way for more gas recovery project in Malaysia and globally.
The technology used in the K5 field development can be applied to recover 14.35 TSCF gas in Malaysia and 910 TSCF gas globally. — Bernama