SIEW 2026: Cross-Border Regulations, Risk Profiling Essential for Strong CCS Hubs

Singapore — Building carbon capture and storage hubs in Southeast Asia will require strong value chains underpinned by solid anchor emitters, infrastructure development, transboundary agreements, and proper risk profiling, said a panelist at the Asia Downstream Summit during the Singapore International Energy Week.

According to DNV research, CCS is projected to grow from 41 million metric tons of CO2 per year captured and stored in 2025 to 1,300 million mtCO2/year in 2050, or 6% of global emissions.

Growth will be driven by hard-to-decarbonize sectors such as cement, iron and steel, said the panelist at the summit, which was held under the Chatham House Rule. The speaker pointed out that CCS hubs – such as the Northern Lights project in Norway – are “absolutely fundamental” for the technology to scale.

A hub can connect multiple emitters to share infrastructure, such as the transport system and storage sites. It offers better economics and access, reduces duplication of efforts, promotes better utilization of infrastructure and provides access for smaller emitters that would otherwise have to build their individual value chains.

Notable CCS hub initiatives in Asia have so far been concentrated in Malaysia and Indonesia. One of the most recent developments is a joint venture agreement between Petronas CCS Ventures, TotalEnergies and Mitsui in October to develop a CO2 storage area, envisioned as a key component of Malaysia’s Southern Carbon Capture and Storage Hub.

Separately, a prefeasibility study undertaken by project management company Hatch for a consortium in August 2025 shortlisted five hubs in the Asia Pacific based on their potential performance across the full carbon capture, utilization and storage value chain. The hubs are in India (two hubs), Indonesia, Malaysia and Australia.

The consortium comprises “K” Line, Leta, Kobe Steel, ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India, Chevron Australia New Energies, Hyundai Steel, JSW Steel, BHP and Mitsui.

Key Success Factors for CCS Hubs

Building CCS hubs is complex undertakings, with storage, regulation, infrastructure and commercial backing among the key ingredients for successful hubs, said the summit speaker.

Pointing to the importance of storage site certainty, he said that while many such sites have been analyzed from a geological capacity point of view, better appraisals are needed for a more rounded understanding of factors such as capacity, injectivity, emissions containment and risk profile. “Having certainty about the storage site is super important, especially in Asean where emission sources may not be co-located with the storage sites,” he pointed out.

This also demonstrates the importance of cross-border regulations. “There are quite a few questions here – who owns the CO2, ownership transfer, liability transfer, how is the CO2 abated and accounted, who [assumes] the liability of the long-duration storage,” he said. “Although Asean countries are developing regulations to allow the import and export of CO2, what is missing is government-to-government agreements that can answer these critical questions.”

Infrastructure is another key question that needs to be tackled and is a chick-and-egg problem, he added. “There are two stakeholders – the abater and the infrastructure developer. The developer needs committed volumes for investment; the abater is looking for infrastructure to be developed before it commits to capture.”

Lastly, in terms of funding, there needs to be an understanding of the different risk profiles in different parts of the value chain. “We need to allocate the correct risk profile to the correct part of the value chain, [which will make] the investment a lot more attractive to potential investors and develop the necessary policy actions that help ascertain the development mechanisms,” said the speaker. This, he added, will help “show a path to revenue generation”.

The Singapore International Energy Week was held on Oct. 26-30.

–Reporting by Mei-Hwen Wong, mei-hwen.wong@dowjones.com; Editing by Lujia Wang, lujia.wang@dowjones.com