Egypt and Eni in $25m carbon capture and storage pact

Egypt and Italian energy company Eni plan to develop a project to capture and store carbon dioxide in the Meleiha field as the country moves to reduce emissions.

The project, which will entail an investment of $25 million, will capture and store between 25,000 and 30,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually, said Tarek El Molla, Egypt’s Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, according to a Wam report.

He did not mention when the project would be completed.

Carbon capture and storage refers to a method where carbon dioxide is removed from industrial sources or directly from the atmosphere.

Egypt accounts for only 0.6 per cent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions, Minister of Environment Yasmine Fouad told a petroleum conference in Cairo in February.

Removing carbon will be crucial to achieving the Paris Agreement’s goal of capping the rise in global temperatures at 1.5°C or 2°C above pre-industrial levels, said energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie. About 1.8 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent over the next 30 years need to be removed to attain the target, the consultancy said.

Egypt’s first carbon capture and storage project will focus on the extraction of algae oil to be used in biofuel production. With an investment of $600m and an annual capacity of 350,000 tonnes, it will contribute to the reduction of 1.2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, Mr El Molla said.

The second, with a capacity of 75,000 tonnes from an investment of $600m, will produce biodegradable plastics. It aims to achieve a carbon dioxide reduction of 45,000 tonnes a year.

The third project, with an annual output of 30,000 tonnes from an investment of $50m, aims to convert plastic waste into oil that can be used in polythene production. It is expected to achieve a carbon dioxide reduction of 63,000 tonnes annually.