News

The Saudi energy world was energised this week by two vibrant conferences, iktva 2025 in Dhahran and Future Minerals Summit in Riyadh, highlighting the massive opportunities in both the petroleum sector and in the energy transition in the Kingdom. 
 
It has been a pleasure to support the Global CCS Institute and to chart the Institute’s progress in the MENA region.  The Institute is the leading global think tank with a mission to accelerate the deployment of CSS. The Institute launched the Global CCS Report 2024 in October 2024, highlighting 628 CCS projects globally in the pipeline with 416 Mtpa cumulative capture capacity. The Head of the MENA Region is led by Mohammad Abu Zahra.   
 
From a Middle East perspective, the EIC is tracking almost US$170bn clean energy projects in the GCC region including renewables, hydrogen, CCS, energy storage, energy from waste and geothermal. This represents 23% of the total value of the energy market in the region. 
 
https://www.globalccsinstitute.com/news-media/insights/saudiarabiaccsefforts/ 
 
Saudi Arabia is making significant progress in CCS initiatives as part of its 2060 net zero goal. The country aims to reach 44 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) of CCUS capacity by 2035, with support from Saudi Aramco, which has increased its CCS target from 11 to 14 Mtpa by that year. 
 
December 2024 saw Aramco, Linde and SLB sign shareholders’ agreement for one of the largest CCS hubs globally in Jubail Industrial City, the largest in the MEA region, on the east coast of Saudi Arabia. The hub plans to start operations in 2027, capturing and storing up to 9 million tonnes of CO2 per year. Phase one of the CCS Hub is intended to capture CO2 from three Aramco gas plants and other downstream industrial facilities. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia aims to capture and store 44 million tonnes of CO2 annually by 2035. 

Its first phase includes greenfield facilities for dehydration, compression, and a 200+ km pipeline network to transport dense-phase CO2, with front-end engineering and design by Wood. 

Saudi Arabia aims to turn the Jubail and Yanbu industrial clusters into regional CCS hubs, hosting industries like gas processing, power generation, petrochemicals, and hydrogen production. These clusters sit atop vast CO2 storage potential, with 5.2 Gt in depleted gas reservoirs and 40-318 Gt in the Rub’al-Khali basin. 

Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Energy, in collaboration with the Global CCS Institute, is evaluating innovative business models to incentivise and facilitate CCUS hub development in the Kingdom, particularly focusing on mitigating risks by separating responsibilities and enhancing operational efficiency. 

HFI is keen to play a key role in supporting clients’ business growth opportunities in the Middle East energy transition – routes to growth include acquisitions, local partner ventures, in region group structures, technology supply and technical services contracts (TSTSCs) and in-region manufacturing ventures (IMVs), with advanced energy technology licensing and local manufacturing, procurement, employment and training being a growing policy objective in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Oman. 
 
The next dates for the diary in Saudi are SPE AI & Sustainability Symposium on 4-5 February and EIC KSA Connect 2025 fast approaching on 18 February in the Eastern Province and this completes a solid tranche of key KSA energy events at the start of 2025.