Carbon capture and storage

Shell’s ambition is to work with governments, customers and partners to unlock the potential for CCS to reduce emissions where there are currently no scalable low-carbon alternatives. In 2022, Shell’s operating costs for, and investment in, CCS opportunities amounted to around $220 million, an increase of 51% on 2021.

By the end of 2022, our Quest CCS project at Scotford in Canada (Shell interest 10%) had captured and safely stored more than 7.5 million tonnes of CO₂ since it began operating in 2015. We are exploring the possibility of increasing CCS capacity at Scotford, initially by 750,000 tonnes per year, through our proposed Polaris project and Atlas Carbon Sequestration Hub.

In Australia, the Gorgon CCS project (Shell interest 25%, operated by Chevron), reported it had stored more than 7 million tonnes of CO₂ by the end of October 2022. Despite these significant emission reductions, Gorgon has captured and stored less CO₂ than required to fulfil its regulatory obligations. In 2022, Chevron confirmed it had purchased carbon credits to address the shortfall. In addition, the joint venture aims to invest AUD 40 million in lower-carbon projects in Western Australia. Gorgon started operating in 2019 and is the largest CCS operation in the world.

In 2022, our Northern Lights CCS joint venture (Shell interest 33.3%) in Norway signed a letter of intent to provide Yara, the crop nutrition company, with CO₂ transport and storage services. As of 2024, some 800,000 tonnes of CO₂ per year are expected to be captured, compressed and liquefied at a Yara ammonia and fertiliser plant in the Netherlands. The CO₂ will then be transported to Norway for permanent storage 2,600 metres below the seabed in the North Sea.

During the year, we signed agreements with various companies and governments to jointly explore developing CCS projects in Brunei, China, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, the USA and Western Australia.

Read more about our CCS projects at www.shell.com/ccs.