Indonesia's Pertamina, Chevron agree to share data to develop carbon storage facility

JAKARTA, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Indonesian state oil company Pertamina signed agreements with U.S. oil company Chevron to share data aimed at developing a carbon capture facility in East Kalimantan, Pertamina said in a statement on Tuesday.

Pertamina, through three of its upstream units, agreed to share information with Chevron on areas where they could potentially develop carbon capture storage (CCS) or carbon capture utilisation and storage (CCUS), according to the statement.

Such information may include geological, geophysical data, maps and commercial information, among others.

Pertamina is reviewing numerous potential partnerships on CCS and CCUS, including with Exxon Mobil.

"The use of fossil energy in Indonesia is still dominant, meaning we still produce large emissions. Therefore, it is important to be serious about CCS and CCUS technology," Pertamina Chief Executive Nicke Widyawati said.

Chevron did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The agreements were signed on the sidelines of a trip to the U.S. by Indonesia's President Joko Widodo.

Indonesia wants to utilise its depleted hydrocarbon reservoirs as storage facilities for green house gases and is finalising a regulation that would open up CCS and CCUS storage schemes in the country to industries outside the oil and gas sector and allow carbon from abroad to be stored in the country.

Indonesia is expected to require only half of its storage capacity of 8 gigatonnes of carbon in the depleted reservoirs, while an additional 400 gigatonnes of storage capacity is available if it utilises its saline aquifers. (Reporting by Fransiska Nangoy; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)