Scottish oil and gas companies look to China

Scotland is investing £100,000 in China’s emerging CCS sector

The Scottish government and its main economic development agency, Scottish Enterprise, are contributing £50,000 each towards a project to develop carbon capture and storage technology in China.

The scheme could help Scottish research institutions and businesses to engage in the emerging Chinese CCS market. Supporting the UK-China (Guangdong) CCUS Centre, the funding will help establish a carbon capture test site at the Haifang coal-fuelled power plant, as well as a pre-front end engineering and design study to build carbon dioxide capture, transport and storage technology at a new build 8GW coal-fired power station in the province of Guangdong.

Chris Bryceland, project manager for CCS at Scottish Enterprise, said the technology would be a major part of efforts to combat climate change, backing up studies carried out by the Energy Technologies Institute in the UK. “This market is going to happen in China and we have expertise in Scotland that we can take there,” he said. “There is a commitment in China to do something about climate change. China could be a particularly good market for us – but it’s how you get into it.” Scotland would supply oil and gas-related expertise such as understanding subsurface geology, which is critical to the success of future CCS projects.

Guangdong is an engineering and manufacturing powerhouse for China, but relies largely on coal-fuelled electricity. The proximity of offshore oil and gas fields is expected to provide abundant opportunities for the storage of carbon dioxide – as the North Sea does for Scotland. This offers opportunities for the service sector and oil and gas operators – especially those which have already gained expertise in the CCS commercialisation competition, or are engaged in current commercialisation projects. China could become one of the first countries to successfully establish large-scale CCS schemes, Bryceland said.

Scottish minister for business, energy and tourism, Fergus Ewing, said: “China is one of the world’s largest energy producing and consuming countries. As a proportion of the world’s atmospheric emissions, it releases over a quarter of the total emissions of carbon dioxide – and this trend is rising. As a result, China is facing increased pressure to reduce its CO₂ emissions.

“Scotland’s energy industry is a recognised leader and is proven to work in partnerships around the world. Forty years of oil and gas production has created a strong supply chain, a skilled workforce, a renowned academic sector and well-developed energy infrastructure. These skills can be readily transferred to the CCS industry.

“Scotland is at the forefront of CCS and CO₂ enhanced oil recovery research, and we are looking to strengthen Scotland’s co-operation with China.”

China has already undertaken some 20 demonstrations and pilot projects of CCS technology, and is expected to include a strong commitment to practical CCS construction in its next five year plan.