As Malaysia rushes to enact a new law to govern carbon capture, use and storage (CCUS), environmental non-profit RimbaWatch has published analysis of the country’s CCUS projects to highlight that most of these projects will extend the extraction of fossil fuels rather than curb planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions.
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Analysis of 10 CCUS initiatives in Malaysia by RimbaWatch found that nine of them are linked to fossil fuel expansion, primarily the extraction of natural gas.
The Kuala Lumpur-based campaign group has called for investments in CCUS to be redirected into renewable energy, which it said should be prioritised as it would result in far greater emissions savings and “ensure a genuine, credible and low-risk decarbonisation effort”.
“Global evidence suggests CCUS projects frequently underperform, with high failure rates and capture efficiencies often falling below industry claims. Diverting investment from CCUS to growing solar power could avoid 14.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year, more than 2 million tonnes higher than CCUS in a best-case scenario,” it said.
CCUS has been identified as one of Malaysia’s key decarbonisation levers under the country’s national energy transition roadmap (NETR). Malaysia’s national oil and gas company Petronas has said that CCUS is pivotal to achieving net zero target by 2050, the same year as the national carbon neutrality goal.
RimbaWatch’s research launches after a new law to govern CCUS initiatives in Malaysia passed on 6 March in the country’s lower house of parliament was met with alarm and protest by opposition lawmakers. On Wednesday, RimbaWatch joined a group of 18 other civil society organisations – including Greenpeace Malaysia, the Consumers’ Association of Penang, and Klima Action Malaysia – to sign a memoradum to the Dewan Negara or upper house of Parliament, demanding for the process to be halted and the CCUS bill to be revised.
The coalition called for extensive and robust safeguards to be incorporated in the bill, and for the establishment of an independent oversight and advisory body to ensure rigorous public scrutiny of carbon capture technologies, among other requests.
The statement said: “We do not view CCUS as a viable climate solution. It is a deceptive, dangerous distraction and ultimately a false solution. This technology carries significant uncertainties, long-term liabilities, and serious environmental and social risks, all of which could impose substantial costs on both the government and the public.”
RimbaWatch’s analysis identified 10 CCUS initiatives in Malaysia with ongoing feasibility studies or where agreements or memorandums have been signed to support their development. Of six initiatives proposed in Sarawak, it said five are linked to fossil fuel expansion, either through enabling sour gas developments or encouraging the development of a gas power plant.
These initiatives include Kasawari, which will be the world’s biggest CCUS project to date off the coast of Sarawak, and the Lang Lebah offshore project also in Sarawak. The Kasawari and Lang Lebah fields alone hold a combined 16 trillion cubic feet of gas and 20.4 million barrels of oil equivalent of crude reserves.
According to the Ministry of Economy, Sarawak and Sabah are currently excluded from the national carbon storage framework. The Sarawak government has insisted that all CCUS projects undertaken within its boundaries are regulated and governed by state laws.
RimbaWatch stressed that no fossil fuel company or government ministry has conducted a comprehensive impact assessment of CCUS projects to determine whether such projects have a positive impact on their entire lifecycle. In lieu of this, it said it adopted methodologies from its own carbon accounting guide to estimate the lifecycle emissions of three of the 10 CCUS initiatives for which reserve data was publicly available, accounting for CCUS removals.
The estimated emissions from three Malaysia gas reserves with planned CCUS facilities. The emissions will total 1.379 billion tCO₂e, of which CCUS will only remove 10 per cent, according to RimbaWatch’s calculations. Source: RimbaWatch
According to RimbaWatch’s calculations, the full lifecycle emissions of the three CCUS hubs which have a shared storage capacity of up to 15 million tonnes of CO2 per year – Kawasari, Lang Lebah and BIGST in Terengganu, Peninsula Malaysia – would exceed the amount of carbon captured by a factor of 10. These CCUS projects are linked to gas fields operated by Petronas and will produce 20.4 million barrels of oil equivalent of crude reserves for which extraction was only made feasible through CCUS, RimbaWatch said.
Previously, “sour” gas fields such as those in Sarawak could not be extracted due to their high CO2 content, but extraction is made possible because CCUS injects CO2 into the ground, converting sour gas into extractable “sweet” gas.
Eco-Business has approached Petronas regarding the net emissions of its planned CCUS initiatives, and asked for its response to concerns surrounding the CCUS bill.
The fields that RimbaWatch analysed will emit 55.1 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO₂e) in annual emissions, which is equivalent to the total emissions of Japan in 2023, it said in the report. CCUS will only remove 10 per cent of these emissions in a best-case scenario.
If the amount Malaysia plans to invest in CCUS was invested in solar energy, 2.1 million more tonnes of CO2 would be saved, according to RimbaWatch’s analysis of the NETR, which charts energy transition spending from 2023 to 2030.
Environmental watchdog studied three CCUS initiatives and their full lifecycle emissions. Image: RimbaWatch
While the CCUS bill bans the use of imported CO2 to extract sour gas reserves, it does not restrict the use of locally captured CO2. “This loophole could encourage more fossil fuel extraction, ultimately harming the climate,” RimbaWatch noted.
The non-profit also said that the bill does not include any provisions for fines or penalties for CCUS projects which leak CO2 back into the atmosphere, or which capture lower amounts of CO2 than promoted.
An independent inquiry into CCUS could determine whether the overall fossil fuel-based emissions from CCUS projects are aligned to a 1.5 degree pathway under Malaysia’s commitments to the Paris Agreement, and if corporate lobbying influenced legislative decisions, it said.
Malaysia’s economy ministry, which proposed the bill, has said that the CCUS industry could unlock investments of over US$200 billion over 30 years and create 200,000 new jobs annually, citing a 2022 report by Petronas.
