SLB, Aker Merge Carbon-Capture Technologies

SLB has agreed to merge its carbon-capture business unit with ACC through a majority ownership acquisition, supporting the accelerated decarbonization of industry at scale. SLB will pay NOK Corp. $4.12 billion for an 80% ownership in ACC Holding AS—the holder of ACC. Pending the business’ performance, SLB may also submit additional payments of $1.36 billion to NOK over the next three years. ACC will retain a 20% ownership in the business.

“For carbon-capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) to have the expected impact on supporting global net-zero ambitions, it will need to scale up 100-200 times in less than three decades,” said Olivier Le Peuch, CEO, SLB. “Crucial to this scale-up is the ability to lower capture costs, which often represent as much as 50-70% of the total spend of a CCUS project. We are excited to create this business with ACC to accelerate the deployment of carbon capture technologies that will shift the economics of carbon capture across high-emitting industrial sectors.”

The companies will combine technology portfolios, process design expertise, and a project delivery platform, enhancing ACC’s commercial carbon-capture products and SLB’s new technology and industrialization capability. This acquisition creates a platform for the introduction of early-stage technology into the global market.

In an earlier deal that took place in December 2023, SLB and the Northern Lights (NL) joint venture signed a memorandum of understanding with Microsoft to optimize the integrated cloud-based workflows for NL’s CCS operations. For the initial phases of the partnership, SLB will enhance its digital CCS workflows and numerical simulation systems for the Delfi digital platform. SLB’s Delfi digital platform was deployed to streamline the subsurface workflows of NL in 2022.

“Digital solutions have a key role to play in enabling the necessary speed and scale for CCS, and we are excited to work closely with Microsoft and the NL JV to facilitate the complex digitalization of the CCS value chain,” said Trygve Randen, Senior Vice President of Digital Products and Solutions, SLB.

Another division of Aker, Aker BP, and OMV AS procured a Poseidon license in line with the CO₂ Storage Regulations on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. The Poseidon license will potentially be able to store more than 5 million tons of CO₂ per year. The plan is to inject CO₂ captured from a diverse range of industrial emitters across North-West Europe. The companies also established a partnership with Höegh LNG as part of the Poseidon project.

Carbon-capture technology and initiatives have received increased attention since the Biden Administration laid out its plans to eliminate carbon emissions by 2050. Bradford Crabtree, Assistant Secretary for the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management, spoke about carbon capture and management and how the DOE is prioritizing this at POWERGEN 2024: “President Biden has set a goal of a 50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, zero emissions in the power sector by 2035, and net-zero emissions economy-wide by 2050. The DOE estimates that reaching President Biden’s ambitious plan for a net-zero emissions economy will require capturing and storing between 400 million and 1.8 billion metric tons of CO₂ emissions from the U.S. economy annually by 2050.”