Indonesia is finalising a regulation that opens up carbon capture and storage schemes to more industries and allows greenhouse gases from abroad to be stored in the country, a government official said on Tuesday. Indonesia's existing regulatory framework for implementing carbon capture and storage (CCS) and carbon capture, storage and utilisation (CCUS) currently only applies to the oil and gas sector. The country aims to set itself up as a carbon storage hub, utilising its depleted hydrocarbon reservoirs and saline aquifers, said energy ministry senior official Tutuka Ariadji. "This regulation will have a wider scope and make it possible for cross border storage, so carbon from abroad can be stored here through certain mechanisms," he said.
Businesses outside oil and gas, such as cement and metal industries, will also be allowed to store carbon they emitted to CCS and CCUS facilities under the new rules. Indonesia has storage capacity of 8 gigatonnes of carbon in the depleted reservoirs, while it would use up around 4 gigatonnes of storage, Tutuka said, adding that an additional 400 gigatonnes of storage capacity is available if it utilises its saline aquifers. He said there are currently 15 CCS and CCUS projects in various stage of preparation with combined investment of nearly USD 8 billion, including BP's Tangguh CCUS project.
