SK E&S, Australia’s Santos eye joint carbon capture, hydrogen projects

SK E&S Co., the natural gas business unit of South Korea’s SK Group, and Australia’s leading energy company Santos Ltd. are seeking joint projects in the carbon capture and storage (CCS) and hydrogen transport and storage sectors.

Leaders of the two companies on Wednesday met at the World Gas Conference 2022 in Daegu, southeast of Seoul, and discussed ways to explore new business opportunities beyond their current partnership.

Kevin Gallagher, chief executive of Santos, Australia’s second-largest independent oil and gas producer, said the two companies will strengthen their tie-up in CCS projects as a way to reduce carbon emissions, according to SK.

SK E&S Chief Executive Choo Hyeong-wook said at the conference that the company will seek new areas of further cooperation with its Australian partner.

In March, SK said it will begin the front-end engineering design work to transform production facilities at the Bayu-Undan gas field, located south of East Timor, into a carbon capture and storage plant.

The Bayu-Undan field is jointly owned by SK and other energy companies such as Santos, Japan’s Inpex Corp. and Italy’s Eni.

SK and Santos also showcased their CCS technology to produce low-carbon natural gas at the Barossa gas field, off Australia’s Northern Territory.

The two companies plan to produce low-carbon liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Barossa field and push ahead with a project to transport and store blue hydrogen, which is produced from natural gas.

SK E&S, primarily engaged in natural gas development projects, has been bolstering its renewable energy business amid an industry-wide shift toward eco-friendly energy sources.

Last month, the company said it is investing $110 million for a 10% stake in Summit Carbon Solutions LLC, which is leading the world’s largest carbon capture and storage project in the US.

Write to Jeong-Min Nam at peux@hankyung.com
In-Soo Nam edited this article.