Sinopec Shengli Oilfield Wins Top Geneva Invention Award for CCUS

BEIJING, March 29 — Sinopec Shengli Oilfield announced on March 29 that its independently developed key technological equipment for CCUS (Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage) has won the Special Commendation Gold Medal, the highest honor at the 51st International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva, reported China Energy News. Selected from gold medal projects through strict selection and unanimously approved by the jury, the award has a winning rate of only about 2% of all participating projects.

Li Yang, Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and Secretary-General of the International CCUS Innovation Cooperation Organization, stated that this achievement marks China’s key CCUS whole-chain technological equipment has reached the international leading level, providing a replicable and implementable "China Solution" for global carbon emission reduction governance.

CCUS involves dozens of key equipment in capture, transportation, storage and enhanced oil recovery (EOR) links. Yu Fazhen, Party Branch Secretary of the CCUS Project Department of Shengli Oilfield, noted that China once relied on imports for key CCUS equipment and was constrained by others in core technologies.

"Focusing on key equipment throughout the CCUS process, we have continuously carried out research and achieved new breakthroughs," said Zhang Shiming, an expert in the CCUS field at Shengli Oilfield. In the capture link, the independently developed million-ton-level low-energy capture technology has reduced comprehensive unit energy consumption by 19% and costs by more than 30%.

In the transportation link, the oilfield has built the world’s first supercritical digital twin intelligent pipeline for carbon dioxide containing impurities, forming a safe and efficient transportation mode in the near-critical zone and cutting maintenance costs by 30%. In the EOR and storage link, the innovative integrated technical solution has increased crude oil recovery rate by more than 15 percentage points and carbon dioxide primary storage rate by 20 percentage points.

While developing key CCUS equipment, the team has also solved industry challenges such as difficult low-energy and low-cost capture, difficult safety control of long-distance pipelines, and low recovery and storage rates in continental oil reservoirs. Benefiting from continuous technological breakthroughs, all carbon dioxide injected into the million-ton-level CCUS project of Shengli Oilfield has been stored underground, with daily oil output doubling from 220 tons to 460 tons and continuing to grow.

Yang Yong, main person in charge of Shengli Oilfield, said the oilfield will focus on deepening the integration of technological and industrial innovation in the future, build four "million-ton-level" demonstration projects including low-concentration carbon dioxide capture and utilization in coal-fired power plants, and strive to be a provider of CCUS whole-industry-chain technical solutions and a standard-setter.

The award-winning achievement of Shengli Oilfield’s CCUS technology not only showcases China’s strength in green energy innovation but also demonstrates the country’s positive commitment to global carbon neutrality. It sets a benchmark for the global CCUS industry and injects strong momentum into the coordinated development of energy security and green development.