KUALA LUMPUR: State oil firm Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) yesterday signed an agreement with a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell to collaborate on carbon capture and storage (CCS) in the Southeast Asian country and the region.
Under the Joint Study and Collaboration Agreement, Petronas and Sarawak Shell Berhad will perform an integrated CCS Area Development Plan study within several locations offshore Sarawak, Petronas said in a statement.
“This is one of the many efforts to position and establish Malaysia as a leading CCS solutions hub in the region,“ said Adif Zulkifli, Petronas' executive vice president and CEO of upstream.
Petronas said the scope of the agreement includes exploring the provision of decarbonisation service to Shell's local and cross-border facilities, as well as to other potential regional customers.
Petronas last year signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Malaysia Inc, and another with Posco International Corporation and Posco Engineering & Construction Co. Ltd to explore opportunities in CCS technologies.
In another development, Venezuelan state-run oil firm PDVSA this week will resume exports of diluted crude oil (DCO) for the first time in nine months, according to a document seen by Reuters.
Since US trade sanctions were imposed on PDVSA in 2019, a lack of diluents, especially heavy naphtha, has hurt its ability to produce exportable grades from its largest production region, the Orinoco Belt. Its extra heavy oil must be diluted with naphtha or condensate for transportation and exports.
A key swap deal that provided Iranian condensate for crude has allowed PDVSA to alter its production and shipping strategies and build its stocks of DCO. PDVSA was receiving about 2.1 million barrels per month of condensate in exchange for supplying the Iranian National Oil Co with some 3.8 million barrels of its flagship Merey 16 crude.
But a recent accumulation of DCO in onshore tanks has forced PDVSA to dedicate a portion of its limited vessel fleet to floating storage, encouraging it to resume exports of the lower-quality grade to Asia.
A Panama-flagged supertanker has loaded about 1.9 million barrels of DCO bound for Malaysia, according to an internal PDVSA schedule report. Malaysia is sometimes used to transship Venezuelan crude bound for China. – Reuters
