Hail and Ghasha Carbon Capture and Hydrogen Recovery: a Unique Perspective

Abstract This paper will present ADNOC's Carbon Capture initiative on Hail and Ghasha Development Project (HGD), through a description of the selected process line up for CO2 recovery, transportation and delivery, and the analysis of the overall asset emissions for the development scheme. HGD is currently in the execution stage and will develop the untapped oil and gas reserves from the highly sour Hail and Ghasha fields. Production is targeted to start by Q1 2028 (January 2028) with sustainable production of 1 BSCFD of raw gas, and max production of 82.5 MBPD of Oil, 76.3 MSTBD of Condensate, 9000 TPD of Sulphur and 5030 TPD of NGL. The sour gas levels at Hail and Ghasha fields are exceptionally high, in the range of 13 to 38% mole H2S, and 4 to 9% mole CO2. The raw wet sour gas coming from offshore Ghasha wells via GOP and production fluid from Hail offshore wells will be commingled in Onshore Processing Plant (OPP) and treated at Acid Gas Removal Units (AGRU). The acid gas will be processed in an oxygen-enriched Sulphur Recovery Unit (SRU), to recover elemental Sulphur. The off-gases from TGTU absorbers, having 73% mole CO2, 20% mole H2, etc., will be compressed and fed to ‘H2/CO2 recovery section’, to recover H2 and CO2 as high-purity streams through cryogenic and PSA technologies. The recovered H2 will be used to feed the Condensate Hydrotreater Unit, while the CO2 will be compressed for reinjection, and delivered through 140 km pipeline to BAB Hub (ADNOC Onshore), where it will be re-injected. As result of this line up, from the ‘H2 / CO2 recovery section’, only off-gases will be sent back to SRU/TGTU Thermal Oxidizers (Incinerators), hence significantly reducing the CO2 emissions to atmosphere, and playing a fundamental contribution towards achieving project Net Zero emissions. It should be mentioned that the lineup is covered under the ADNOC patent application EP4319903A1 "Method and system for Sulphur, Carbon Dioxide, and Hydrogen recovery".