Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar: advantaged subsurface for advantaged CCUS

Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are globally among the largest oil and gas producers and account for the largest Scope 1 and 2 emissions. However, these countries have the lowest carbon intensity. Since 2015, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar have led the roll-out of CCUS projects in the region. We took a closer look at the CCUS advantage from the largest fields in these countries, by evaluating them against our CCUS storage site evaluation criteria. This analysis helped us identify new opportunities for country-led or regional hub development near emission sources in Jubail, Dammam, and Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the UAE, and Doha in Qatar. If developed, these projects could encourage a scalable hydrogen industry in the region and generate a storage market for countries with suboptimal storage resources. However, gaining first-mover advantage requires early identification and sanction of projects.