Sinopec backs global CCUS cooperation

Sinopec said on September 4 that it had joined international partners in Astana to launch an initiative aimed at expanding cross-border cooperation on carbon capture, utilization and storage, or CCUS. The company said the effort was unveiled during the 2026 International CCUS Technology Conference, held on September 1 and 2 in Kazakhstan’s capital. (morningstar.com) Sinopec named the other launch participants as the International CCUS Technology Innovation Cooperation Organization, Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Energy and the Institute of New Materials and Energy Technologies at Nazarbayev University. (sinopec.com) The announcement matters because it puts CCUS in an explicitly international frame. In Sinopec’s description, the initiative is not limited to a single plant or storage site. (morningstar.com) It calls for cooperation on technology, standards and professional exchange across the wider carbon-management chain, according to the company’s statement. ### Who launched the initiative in Astana? China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation, known as Sinopec, said it launched the Initiative for Cooperation on Low-Carbon Energy Development with three named partners: the International CCUS Technology Innovation Cooperation Organization, the Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and Nazarbayev University’s Institute of New Materials and Energy Technologies. (morningstar.com) The launch took place in Astana during the 2026 International CCUS Technology Conference. Astana hosted government, industry and international-organization representatives from China, Kazakhstan, the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada for the launch, according to the PR Newswire release reproduced by Morningstar. (morningstar.com) ### What does the initiative actually call for? The initiative calls for closer collaboration on CCUS technologies and standards, along with greater exchange among CCUS professionals, according to the September 4 release. Those are concrete but broad goals: technology cooperation, standard-setting and professional networking rather than a single project announcement or financing package. (morningstar.com) Sinopec’s own account of the conference said more than 230 participants from government agencies, international organizations, universities, research institutes and companies across dozens of countries and regions attended the September 1 opening in Astana. That gives the initiative a wider institutional base than a bilateral company memorandum. (morningstar.com) ### Why is Sinopec positioning CCUS this way? Sinopec said it had helped establish the International CCUS Technology Innovation Cooperation Organization and would continue supporting its development as a global network of leading experts. In the company’s framing, that network is meant to deepen international cooperation across the CCUS sector. (morningstar.com) The conference setting also underscored that framing. Sinopec said delegates used the Astana meeting to discuss low-carbon energy transformation and CCUS technology achievements, linking the initiative to a broader industrial and policy conversation rather than to one domestic pilot. (sinopec.com) ### What does Sinopec say about its own CCUS footprint? Sinopec said it is advancing two large-scale CCUS application bases in China, one in the Bohai Bay Basin and another in the Yangtze River Delta. The company cited those projects as part of its broader push to build experience in large-scale carbon-management infrastructure. That existing project base helps explain why Sinopec is now tying its domestic build-out to international cooperation on standards and technology exchange, according to its September 4 statement. (prnewswire.com) ### What comes next after the Astana launch? The next identifiable milestone is the follow-through by the four named participants — Sinopec, ICTO, Kazakhstan’s Energy Ministry and Nazarbayev University’s energy institute — on the cooperation agenda set out in Astana. (sinopec.com) As announced on September 4, that agenda includes work on CCUS technologies, standards and exchanges among industry specialists after the September 1-2 conference. (morningstar.com) (chemxplore.com)