GLASGOW — The Saudi Arabia's pavilion at the COP 26 United Nations Climate Summit held a discussion on current and future technologies for carbon extraction, which was attended by a number of academics and those interested in climate issues.

During the event which took place Saturday, the speakers provided an explanation of the objectives of the Saudi Green Initiative, which was recently announced by Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman, deputy prime minister and minister of defense, noting that it aims to reduce carbon emissions by increasing vegetation, confronting pollution, the degradation of land and marine life preservation.

The panel discussed some aspects of the initiative, most notably the planting of 10 billion trees inside Saudi Arabia during the coming decades, which means an increase in the area covered by existing trees up to 12 times, representing the country’s contribution by more than 4% in achieving the goals of the global initiative to reduce land degradation, in addition to natural habitats, and 1% of the global target for planting a trillion trees.

The speakers presented an explanation of the different techniques for extracting carbon dioxide, including the use of pre-and-post combustion methods from liquid-fueled machines, capture and extraction techniques, and other natural methods such as equalizing emissions by increasing vegetation or storing it through algal cultivation.

The speakers also presented an explanation of the efforts made by Aramco, which is currently implementing one of the largest pilot projects to extract and store carbon dioxide in the Middle East, in which it extracts and processes 45 MMSCFD in the company's laboratory in Hawiyah.

As part of the ambitious project, the speakers explained that the carbon dioxide gas would be transmitted in a pipeline with a length of 85 km, to Uthmaniyah oil field.

Due to this method, gas can be captured, in addition to maintaining the pressure level in the reservoir, and helping to extract larger quantities of oil. The company is currently studying the possibility of implementing this idea in other facilities and oil fields in the Kingdom. — SPA