The Indonesian President, Joko Widodo recently announced the launch of Indonesia’s first carbon storage project. The project is a carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) project and will be operated by BP Plc, the British multinational oil and gas company.

The project will be based in the West Papua province and is expected to be a large success, as Indonesia reportedly has the ability to store 8 gigatonnes of captured carbon. This is made possible through the use of depleted and disused oil and gas reservoirs. Indonesia is also able to store a further 400 gigatonnes within the available space in saline aquifers.

Both parties are clearly very committed to the launch of this project, as the Indonesian President initiated it and BP invested 2.6 billion USD into the project. The first carbon injection for the project is expected to be installed in 2026.

Alongside this project, there are also 15 other carbon capture and storage (CCS) and carbon capture, storage and utilisation (CCUS) projects currently under preparation. These projects are under various stages of construction and there has been an investment intended for all the projects, totalling an estimated amount of 8 billion USD. The most recently launched project, operated by BP will also be receiving a share of this funding.

Energy Minister, Arfin Tasrif, stated on November 24, 2023, “The CCUS project has the capacity to store up to 1.8 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide.”