POSCO Inter, Expands Carbon Capture and Storage New Business... "Contributing to Carbon Neutrality"

POSCO International announced on the 21st that it established a Commercialization Promotion Team under its Energy Division last month to engage in the Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) business.

The company started the business anticipating that the government will set carbon neutrality as a goal by 2050 and that related regulations will be enacted. CCS is a technology that captures and stores carbon dioxide emitted from industrial facilities, isolating it from the atmosphere. The captured carbon dioxide is stored underground. To find suitable geological formations, processes such as artificial seismic wave surveys, exploratory drilling, and carbon dioxide injection are conducted.

CCS Project Model Exhibited by POSCO International

This process is similar to the reverse of resource development for extracting natural gas. The company has been involved in offshore gas field exploration and development since the 1990s. As a company that handles all stages of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) value chain, including exploration, gas transportation, and terminal operation, it expects to apply these capabilities to the CCS business as well.

Last year, it began analyzing the economic feasibility of the CCS business by utilizing depleted offshore gas fields in Australia in collaboration with foreign companies. In Malaysia, it is developing a business model together with state-owned oil companies Petronas, Petros, and POSCO Holdings, and is preparing plans to conduct joint surveys with global companies domestically as well.

Additionally, the company is seeking local investment targets in the United States by leveraging the support for CCS projects under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). A company official stated, "We will lead the group's carbon neutrality efforts and foster eco-friendly energy businesses to play a key role in achieving South Korea's national greenhouse gas reduction targets by 2050."