Project X: Realizing the World's Largest Offshore CCS Project through Effective Front-End Loading
Authors: Najib M. Mohamed , Rahman A. A , Zainalabidin M. , Karim F. A , Narayanan A. , Muhamad S. , Veroba G. , Nordin N. , Azlan A. Nor , Mustafa M. 
Published: February 2024

Project X will be the first Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) project in Company Y, amongst organization's anchor to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. This project will be the largest offshore CCS project in the world with the ability to capture up to 3.3 MTPA of CO2e from new CCS facilities and reinjected to the identified Field B via 138km new pipelines by early 2026. As this project is complex in technology and capital intensive, it is always a great challenge to ensure that the project is carefully planned and successfully implemented within agreed schedule and budget. This paper elaborates key best practices and lessons learnt based on Front End Loading (FEL) pre-development decisions workflow throughout Framing, Feasibility, Scope Selection and Scope Definition phases that achieved Final Investment Decision (FID) ahead of schedule.

It is acknowledged that 2020-2030 is a cornerstone decade for climate action. To limit warming to around 1.5⁰C as per Paris Agreement, concerted efforts are required to reduce global greenhouse gas (GHG) emission by 43% by 2030 as concluded in 2022 COP271. Recent progress is encouraging with surge of announced CO2 capture capacity project align as per growth trend to reach projected global Net Zero Emission (NZE) level by 2030. A key success factor in achieving these near-term emission reduction lies in reducing project lead time to reach FID, principally maturation of large scale CO2 storage2. This can be further reinforced with less complex CCS project selection, among others is carbon capture from natural gas processing industry. Effective scaling up will require a close assessment of decisions, past development practices, and lessons learned depository. Past evaluations of the actual scope, schedule, and cost execution from large-scale CCS projects (approximately half of overall CCS projects) have identified similar scope complexities but vastly different outcomes. The results ranged from competitive to significantly worse than the industry average performance (cost higher than 35%, schedule 40% slower than the industry average)3. Hence, leveraging the proven best practices and considering lesson learnt in the early project development phase is critical to provide a robust baseline of technical feasibility and to shape for a larger-scale CCS concept with commercial viability3. This context fits Project X, which is in the less complex CCS category and a forerunner as the largest offshore CCS project globally (injection rate and CO2 storage capacity).

Field X is highly contaminated, up to 25 mol% of CO2, and is located at 110 meter of water depth, offshore Sarawak, Malaysia. The development consists of a single wellhead platform (WHP) with 9 drilling slots, 6 production wells, with a bridge-link to a central processing platform (CPP). The CPP is equipped with Acid Gas (AGRU) and Mercury Removal Units (MRU) to remove the CO2, H2S and Hg to meet sales gas specifications. The gross gas production of 900MMscfd will result in an average of 240MMscfd of CO2 rich stream to be diverted to the new CCS facilities. The remaining processed gas is exported to an onshore LNG plant. Company Y is the field Operator (100%), with a commitment to submit the CCS plan and deliver CO2 First Injection by 2030.