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Maersk Tankers, owned by the Danish conglomerate A.P. Moller – Maersk Group, is prepared to enter into the CO2 transportation market to help promote Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), one of the technologies identified as key to mitigate the effects of climate change.

“With this initiative we want to show industrial leadership by demonstrating we can act on the global challenge that is carbon emissions,” said Martin Fruergaard, senior vice president, Maersk Tankers.

“Our decision reflects the A.P. Moller – Maersk Group’s approach to the global challenge on climate change, which is to develop innovative and creative ways to limit carbon emissions,” added Fruergaard.

Maersk Tankers has examined the business case for entering into the CO2 transportation market for either offshore storage or enhanced oil recovery (EOR), using CO2 to increase oil recovery rates in maturing fields.

“By utilizing our experience in transporting liquefied petrochemical and natural gasses, we have developed a large scale case for transport of CO2 for storage or EOR,” said Fruergaard.

According to Maersk Tanker studies, more than 750 million tonnes of CO2 are emitted from large stationary power plants close to the sea in the North Sea region alone. Fifteen Handysize Gas Carriers (20,000 cbm) could transport more than half of Denmark’s annual CO2 emissions for storage in the North Sea, the equivalent of all CO2 from large Danish stationary emission sources. CO2 fraction retained in selected reservoirs is likely to exceed 99 percent over 1,000 years, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Furthermore, transporting CO2 by sea is cost-competitive and more flexible than pipelines on longer distances or in smaller quantities.

Apart from Maersk Tankers, A.P. Moller – Maersk Group’s Maersk Oil is also looking into the opportunities linked to CCS.

“Given our experience from the Danish underground in the North Sea and the high-level of knowledge we have gained from that, Maersk Oil is investigating CO2 mitigation technologies for the geological storage of CO2 to meet the expected demand,” said Michael Engell-Jensen, senior vice president and head of Maersk Oil’s Carbon and Climate Department.

Maersk Oil is in discussion with a number of potential partners to develop Carbon Capture and Storage projects that will remove CO2 from point sources such as coal fired power plants, and store the CO2 underground, either onshore or offshore.