SK E&S seeks Australia's support for Barossa LNG, CCS projects

SK E&S Co. has asked Australia to support its liquefied natural gas fields in the country and a carbon capture and storage (CCS) project in neighboring East Timor as the clean energy unit of South Korea’s No. 2 conglomerate SK Group is expanding its eco-friendly business.

SK E&S CEO Choo Hyeongwook and Australia’s Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen on Tuesday in Seoul discussed the successful implementation of the Barossa gas field offshore northern Australia and the CCS project at the Bayu-Undan fields in the Timor Sea. The two projects will be the foothold for SK E&S’ blue-hydrogen business based on low-carbon LNG.

The company plans to extract low-carbon LNG from the Barossa field with CCS technology and bring about 1.3 million tons of the gas to South Korea for blue hydrogen production.

SK E&S has been working on the gas field project with other shareholders including Australia’s oil and gas company Santos Ltd. since the South Korean company acquired a 37.5% share in the Barossa and Caldita fields in 2012. The two companies are also cooperating to transform production facilities at the Bayu-Undan gas fields, located south of East Timor, into a CCS plant.

AUSTRALIA REVISING RULES ON CARBON TRANSPORTATION

“We plan to capture carbon dioxide emitted during the natural gas production process and CO2 generated from blue hydrogen manufacturing in South Korea to send it from the Darwin LNG Terminal to the Bayu-Undan CCS for storage there,” Choo said in a statement.

The onshore LNG terminal is located in Northern Territory, Australia, about 500 kilometers from the Bayu-Undan fields.

SK E&S’ blue hydrogen business is expected to contribute to South Korea’s energy policy conversion and provide new growth opportunities to Australia, Choo said.

Bowen said Australia started revising regulations on carbon transportation to comply with the amendment soon, according to SK E&S.

Bowen visited South Korea on Monday and Tuesday to meet executives of companies such as SK E&S and discuss business cooperation in the country.

Write to Mi-Sun Kang at misunny@hankyung.com
 

Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.