Knowledge Sharing Conference
ERIA and Partners Launch Research Report Centred on Indonesia’s Potential as Regional CCUS Hub
The 12th Knowledge Sharing Virtual Conference, 5 February 2024: Carbon, Capture, and Storage (CCS), as well as Carbon, Capture, Utilisation, and Storage (CCUS) technologies, are at the centre of the global push to reduce carbon emissions and at the forefront of clean energy innovation. The Asian region is working towards the goal of accelerating the deployment of CCS/CCUS in which Indonesia has emerged as a strong candidate for a regional CCUS hub due to its numerous sedimentary basins that are suitable for carbon dioxide (CO2) storage. However, CO2 storage capacity data is not accessible to the public thus hindering the realisation of CCUS projects in Asia.
To improve data availability on the region’s CO2 storage capacity, the Asia CCUS Network (ACN) carried out ground-breaking research with the Center for Technology Service - National Research and Innovation Agency (Pusyantek – BRIN), the Testing Center for Oil and Gas LEMIGAS - Directorate General of Oil and Gas, and the Center for Geological Survey (PSG) - Geological Agency, Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources of Indonesia. The report, completed in December 2023, aims to estimate Indonesia’s potential storage capacity of CO2 at the basin level, and that the publication will prompt local and regional investors to strengthen their support of CCS/CCUS deployment in Indonesia. The report was launched during the 12th ACN Knowledge Sharing Conference where the research study results were also presented.
In his Opening Remarks, Mr Shigeru Kimura, Special Advisor to the President on Energy Affairs, ERIA highlighted the importance of CO2 storage capacity to build and deploy CCS in the region. Mr Kimura shared that ACN’s vision is to contribute to the decarbonisation of Asia through the development and deployment of CCS and CCUS. Additionally, ACN’s roadmap stipulates starting a CCUS pilot project in 2025 and reaching a commercial scale by 2030. As such, the report helps ERIA and the ACN to select a CO2 storage site as a CCS pilot project. Mr Kimura ended his speech by outlining Indonesia’s strong potential as a CO2 storage hub in Asia and its significant role in the clean energy sector.
Dr Mirza Mahendra, Director of Oil and Gas Engineering and Environment, Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources of Indonesia introduced recent updates regarding Indonesia’s regulatory framework on CCS and the challenges to deploying the technology in the country in his Keynote Speech. He explained that CCUS must support emissions reductions in the oil and gas industries as well as hard-to-abate industries in order to achieve net-zero emissions targets. To advance CCS/CCUS development, Indonesia issued a ministerial regulation in 2023 on the implementation of CCS/CCUS in upstream oil and gas. ‘This regulation is important as the first step to enable CCS/CCUS based on production sharing contract (PSC) on the existing oil and gas working acreage,’ added Dr Mahendra.
More recently, Indonesian President Joko Widodo issued Presidential Regulation No. 14 of 2024 which permits CO2 storage in depleted oil and gas working acreage for other industries outside of oil and gas through cross-border transportation and based on bilateral cooperation. The regulation widens investment opportunities through two schemes: A cooperation contract under existing PSCs, and second, through exploration and storage operation permits. These measures reflect how assessing CO2 storage capacity is ‘the first step to evaluate the potential development of CCS tech in Indonesia and also encourage investors to support the implementation of CCS.’ Further discussions are necessary to deal with the costs of CCS development and risks associated with CO2 storage. Given that Indonesia is still in the initial stage of CCS/CCUS development, Dr Mahendra encourages stakeholders to support human capital development through knowledge sharing and training. He also calls for more subsurface data and investment to carry out more in-depth studies and explorations ‘to ensure the first feasibility of CCS development in each location.’ Dr Mahendra ended his speech by expressing the Indonesian government’s openness to collaborating and cooperating with stakeholders and investors to support CCS implementation in the country.
Dr Hens Saputra, Head of Process and Manufacturing Technology Research Center, Pusyantek – BRIN outlined in his Keynote Speech the need to assess current and future problems as Indonesia works towards its net-zero emissions target. Dr Saputra stated, ‘To achieve a just energy transition, continuous support to developing countries is needed especially on the most vulnerable countries for providing them affordable, reliable, and sustainable access to modern energy capacity as well as the latest technology that is affordable for the public.’ The move towards clean energy will require a reduction in fossil fuel consumption while implementing CCS/CCUS, increasing the use of new and renewable energy, developing the energy sector, and optimising the primary energy mix. Dr Saputra added that policy framework is also key to supporting research and innovation on carbon-neutral energy sources. ‘Indonesia agrees that research has an important role in the national and global net-zero roadmap,’ explained Dr Saputra. He expressed his hope that the research results can be utilized as a reference in the use of CCS and that future research would encompass CO2 use for chemical production, thus, providing an added value while resolving the global emissions problem.
Dr Usman Pasarai, Senior Researcher, BRIN presented the findings of the report entitled ‘Estimation of Indonesia Basin-Scale CO2 Storage’ which was also moderated by Dr Gusti Sidemen, ERIA Expert on CCS/CCUS. Dr Sidemen explained that the research estimates from the report are one of ACN’s contributions to accelerate decarbonisation measures in Asia. He reaffirmed that although Indonesia may serve to store emissions from neighbouring countries and Asia, the data on storage capacity in Indonesia and the region is seldom available or might be available but is not accessible to the public. Dr Sidemen invites research institutions in Asia to also partake in carrying out storage assessments in Indonesia and other countries in the region.
The researchers screened 128 sedimentary basins across the Indonesian archipelago and 1,083 oil and gas fields of which 1,071 fields have sufficient data for evaluation. The objective of the research is to assess the suitability and storage resources of the 128 sedimentary basins across Indonesia. The basins comprise 20 producing basins, 27 non-producing basins, and 81 unexplored and prospective basins. The scope of the research encompasses oil and gas reservoirs evaluated at the field level and saline aquifers evaluated at formation in the basin level with a depth between 800 – 2,500 metres. The study found that Indonesia’s storage resources in selected saline aquifers were estimated at up to 69 gigatonnes (GT) while oil and gas reservoirs have an estimated 2.5 GT of storage resources spread across 12 hydrocarbon fields.
Saline aquifers are very large compared to oil and gas reservoirs and data on saline aquifers is extremely limited globally and in Indonesia. The report examined 96 selected basins and excluded 32 basins from further screening as they have a depth of less than 800 metres. Due to a lack of data, storage resource assessments and estimations of 21 sedimentary basins, particularly in saline aquifers, are included in the report. The top 20 sedimentary basins are mostly producing basins and there is detailed subsurface data as they have been producing for a long time. The researchers used a new approach to estimate CO2 storage resources in deep saline aquifers by adding a Trap Geometry Multiplier into the volumetric equation ‘to appropriately represent the effective average of closure area using gravity and geological data to evaluate a basin area and thickness.’ Based on this, most of Indonesia’s basins have a flat-top anticline shaft. From the 21 sedimentary basins, the total CO2 storage resources are approximately 680 GT, classified as Prospective Storage Resources (3U), in which the Kutai Basin has the largest storage resources at around 150 GT.
The researchers also examined 729 oil fields and 342 gas fields using a volumetric approach and divided the results into Proven, Probable, and Possible categories. Based on the calculations, there are around 10.14 GT of CO2 storage resources, classified as Contingent Storage Resources, for the Proven category in oil and gas reservoirs – 1.3 GT of CO2 storage resources in the oil fields and 8.84 GT in gas fields. About 85% of the CO2 storage resources in oil fields are distributed among five (5) basins located in Central Sumatra, West Java, Kutai, South Sumatra, and Sunda Asri. Meanwhile, the top 5 gas fields with the largest CO2 storage resources are gas-producing fields. The Probable and Possible categories are estimated at around 1.2 GT each. Gas fields have more storage capacity as it is larger and has a higher recovery factor compared to the oil fields. Dr Pasarai concluded his presentation by stating that ‘Indonesia has significant potential of CO2 storage in both deep saline aquifers and hydrocarbon fields and makes Indonesia well-suited to be part of a regional CCUS hub.’
The session was followed by two commentaries by Dr Rachmat Sule, Center of Excellence for CCS and CCUS, ITB and Dr Belladonna Maulianda, Executive Director, Indonesia CCS Center. Both experts praised Dr Pasarai and the team for their hard work in delivering an excellent and necessary research report on this crucial decarbonisation technology. Dr Sule’s comments focused on the importance of packaging the report content in a visually appealing and intelligible book format in order to attract the public to better understand CCS/CCUS. He suggested that local or international experts on CCS/CCUS write a foreword for the proposed book idea. Dr Sule additionally underscored the importance of ensuring that the report reaches the right audience and is sufficiently promoted to the relevant stakeholders at appropriate events such as the Asia Clean Forum by the Asian Development Bank. According to Dr Sule, ‘Networking is crucial because, sometimes, our good achievement is not heard by the international community.’
Dr Maulianda stated that the report gives Indonesia leverage to be a regional CCUS hub and is timely given that the country recently launched a presidential regulation on CCS in early 2024. The Indonesian government is expected to launch a G2G agreement with neighbouring countries that will allow it to carry out cross-border CCS and when that happens, Dr Maulianda stated that the research report will be extensively used. ERIA and its partners’ work highlights the continued effort to facilitate CCS development and deployment in the region. Indonesia is the highest-ranking country in Asia in terms of CCUS regulatory framework hence Dr Pasarai’s report supports this and many other achievements. Dr Maulianda suggested that ERIA and BRIN collaborate with relevant stakeholders to discuss the CCS value chain and the implementation of ISO standards on geological storage.
The event also included a Question & Answer (Q&A) session directed at Dr Pasarai and the commentators. Regarding a question on the difference between prospective storage resources and contingent storage resources, Dr Pasarai explained that the difference is in the data used. For depleted oil and gas reservoirs, the researchers used the data of estimated ultimate recovery ‘which is the volume derived from various sophisticated methodology like simulation model’ and the dynamic aspects of reservoirs. For saline aquifers, regional data was used including a ‘thermal gradient map, thermal regional gradient map, and pressure regional gradient map to estimate the density of CO2 in a particular depth of our target saline aquifers.’ He expressed that more activities need to be conducted to reduce the uncertainties associated with the numbers. Dr Pasarai answered a question about the inclusion of earthquake risks in his storage assessment. As part of the research, 16 criteria were developed which include the risk of an earthquake and according to Dr Pasarai’s study, most of the basins situated near the ring of fire are not included in the top 20 suitable basins for CO2 storage.
There was a question on the impact of various storage estimation calculation methods on storage capacity in which Dr Sule reaffirmed that before 2023, each country had their respective storage estimation calculation which resulted in discrepancies between one country and another. For example, last year, Indonesia’s storage capacity was found to be lower than that of Malaysia. However, in 2023, the Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security and Halliburton conducted a study to estimate storage capacity in Southeast Asia which found that the estimation for Indonesia is much higher than other countries. The result of that study is in line with the results of ERIA and its partners’ latest research report, highlighting the improved consistency of recent storage estimation calculation methods. In his closing remarks, Dr Sule shared that Indonesia finally has one publication on the country's storage capacity which is, hopefully, beneficial for Indonesia’s future.
Dr Maulianda answered a question on calculating the storage of saline aquifers and depleted reservoirs within oil and gas fields. She explained, ‘The methodology between the saline aquifers and the depleted reservoirs within the oil and gas working acreage should be similar. The challenge will be the data because we do not have past subsurface data. What we can do for now is start with the saline aquifers and the depleted reservoirs within the oil and gas anchorage as a proof of concept.’ In her closing remark, Dr Maulianda stated that the report marks a good start ‘to convey to the investors and neighbouring countries that Indonesia is more than capable and ready to be the regional CCS hub.’ During the Q&A session, two participants offered their recommendations for future work in which one participant called for calculations and computations to identify which basins or fields would be commercialized in addition to identifying risks, namely on possible leakage. Another participant shared that one of the reasons shallow basins were not selected was due to increased risk of leakage and thus, the chosen depth between 800 – 2,500 metres in the study is the ideal condition for supercritical CO2. Dr Sidemen closed the Q&A session by expressing ACN’s hope that the report would encourage more detailed studies using public data and proprietary data owned by companies given that with more public data on CCUS in Indonesia, the faster this technology can be developed hence assisting the Indonesian government’s goal of establishing the country as the regional CCUS hub.
Dr Han Phoumin, Senior Energy Economist, ERIA highlighted ERIA and ACN’s ongoing initiatives to decarbonise emissions in Southeast Asia and areas of opportunity to realise Indonesia’s goal as a regional CCUS hub in his Closing Remarks. The goal is to bridge the knowledge gap among ASEAN Member-States (AMS), to help AMS select pilot projects, and ultimately, to commercialise CCUS by 2030. Dr Phoumin expressed his optimism that Indonesia stands to benefit from its vast number of basins and large CO2 storage resources. He is also confident that possible risks such as leakages can be dealt with based on certain procedures. The next step for the country is to set up a business model where emissions can be traded, and this can be done as members of the London Protocol or by establishing G2G agreements. Lastly, financing matters must also be resolved. Dr Phoumin stipulated, ‘CCUS is part of the public good. It has a positive environmental impact. It should come from the public financing to some extent.’ Although Southeast Asian governments are unable to finance CCUS, the region has the support of the European Commission and Japan to share the costs. Dr Phoumin concluded, ‘I hope Indonesia will play a big role in the region and I hope to have more collaboration in the future.’