Regional spotlight: Carbon capture, utilization & storage (CCUS) in Sub-Saharan Africa — what's different and why it matters

Sub-Saharan Africa holds an estimated 300 gigatonnes of CO2 storage capacity in deep saline formations, depleted hydrocarbon reservoirs, and basalt formations, yet the region accounts for less than 0.3% of global CCUS investment and hosts zero large-scale operational capture facilities as of early 2026. This disconnect between geological potential and deployment reality reflects a set of regulatory, financial, and infrastructure constraints that are fundamentally different from those shaping CCUS development in North America, Europe, and the Middle East. For engineers, project developers, and policymakers working to close this gap, understanding what makes Sub-Saharan Africa distinct is essential to designing projects that can actually reach final investment decision.

Why It Matters

Global CCUS capacity reached approximately 50 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) of CO2 captured in 2025, concentrated overwhelmingly in the United States (23 Mtpa), Canada (5 Mtpa), Norway (2 Mtpa), and the Middle East (8 Mtpa). The International Energy Agency's Net Zero Emissions scenario requires global CCUS capacity to reach 1.2 gigatonnes per year by 2030 and 6 gigatonnes by 2050, meaning current capacity must increase roughly 120-fold in 25 years (IEA, 2025). Achieving this scale without deploying CCUS in Sub-Saharan Africa, a region that contains 17% of the world's population and is industrializing rapidly, is mathematically implausible.

Sub-Saharan Africa's emissions profile differs significantly from OECD economies. The region emitted approximately 0.9 gigatonnes of CO2 in 2024, with 38% from power generation (primarily coal in South Africa and natural gas elsewhere), 22% from industrial processes (cement, steel, fertilizer), 18% from oil and gas production, and 22% from land use change and forestry (African Development Bank, 2025). Industrial point sources suitable for post-combustion or pre-combustion capture are fewer and smaller than in industrialized economies, meaning that CCUS project economics depend on different emission source profiles and scales than the 400 MW coal plants or large ethanol facilities that anchor US projects.

The region also faces unique financing constraints. The weighted average cost of capital for infrastructure projects in Sub-Saharan Africa typically ranges from 12 to 18%, compared to 5 to 8% in the US and 4 to 6% in the EU. This cost-of-capital differential alone can double the levelized cost of CO2 abatement for an otherwise identical CCUS project, making concessional financing and blended capital structures essential rather than optional.

Key Concepts

Geological Storage Potential

Sub-Saharan Africa's CO2 storage potential is concentrated in several major basinal systems. The West African sedimentary basins (Niger Delta, Dahomey, and Douala-Kribi) offer extensive deep saline formations with estimated storage capacity exceeding 50 gigatonnes. The East African Rift System contains basalt formations with proven mineral carbonation potential, as demonstrated by CarbFix's work in Iceland on analogous geology. The Karoo Basin in South Africa and the Mozambique Channel sedimentary sequence provide additional capacity, though characterization remains at early stages.

Critically, geological characterization across the region is far less advanced than in the North Sea, the US Gulf Coast, or the Alberta Basin. While Norway has invested over $500 million in subsurface characterization for the Northern Lights project alone, the total spending on CO2 storage site characterization across all of Sub-Saharan Africa through 2025 was approximately $35 million, primarily through donor-funded academic research programs (Global CCS Institute, 2025). This characterization deficit represents the single largest technical barrier to CCUS deployment in the region: investors cannot commit capital to storage projects without bankable data on injectivity, containment integrity, and monitoring requirements.

Regulatory Frameworks

No Sub-Saharan African country had a comprehensive, standalone CCUS regulatory framework as of January 2026. South Africa has progressed furthest, with the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy publishing draft CCUS regulations in 2024 under the National Environmental Management Act, covering site selection, injection permitting, monitoring requirements, and long-term liability provisions. Nigeria's Petroleum Industry Act of 2021 includes provisions for CO2 injection in depleted reservoirs but lacks implementing regulations for dedicated geological storage. Kenya, Mozambique, and Senegal have no CCUS-specific regulations, though their existing petroleum legislation can be partially adapted for CO2 injection operations.

The regulatory gap creates a circular problem: developers cannot advance projects without regulatory certainty, and regulators lack the institutional capacity and political pressure to develop frameworks without concrete project proposals. Breaking this cycle requires parallel advancement of both pilot projects and regulatory development, ideally through structured regulatory sandboxes that allow early projects to proceed under provisional frameworks while permanent legislation is developed.

Carbon Market Integration

Sub-Saharan Africa's CCUS projects will depend heavily on carbon credit revenue to achieve financial viability, given the absence of domestic carbon pricing mechanisms in most countries. South Africa's carbon tax, introduced in 2019 at ZAR 144 per tonne (approximately $8 per tonne) and rising to ZAR 462 per tonne ($25 per tonne) by 2026, is the region's only economy-wide carbon price, but it remains below the $50 to $80 per tonne range needed to make most CCUS applications economically viable without additional support.

Voluntary carbon markets offer an alternative revenue stream, but CCUS credits face integrity challenges. Verra's Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) published its CCUS methodology in 2024, enabling issuance of carbon credits for geological storage projects, though the monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) requirements add $3 to $5 per tonne in compliance costs. Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, which allows international transfer of mitigation outcomes, could channel significantly more capital to Sub-Saharan African CCUS projects if host countries establish the necessary institutional infrastructure for corresponding adjustments.

What's Working

South Africa's Pilot Programs

The South African Centre for Carbon Capture and Storage (SACCCS), funded by the South African government and the World Bank, has been the region's most sustained CCUS initiative. The Zululand CO2 storage pilot in KwaZulu-Natal completed injection of 10,000 tonnes of CO2 into a deep saline sandstone formation in 2024, demonstrating containment over a 24-month monitoring period. Seismic monitoring and wellbore integrity data from the pilot are being used to calibrate storage models for a proposed 500,000 tonne per year commercial-scale project linked to Sasol's Secunda coal-to-liquids facility.

Sasol's Secunda facility emits approximately 56 million tonnes of CO2 per year, making it the single largest point source of CO2 emissions in the Southern Hemisphere. A feasibility study completed in 2025 identified a phased capture strategy starting with the highest-concentration CO2 streams (hydrogen production units at >95% CO2 concentration) where capture costs are $15 to $25 per tonne, before expanding to lower-concentration flue gas streams at $50 to $70 per tonne. This approach mirrors the sequencing strategy used successfully at Shell's Quest project in Alberta.

Nigeria's Gas Flaring Reduction Synergies

Nigeria flares approximately 7 billion cubic meters of associated gas annually, making it one of the world's largest flaring nations. The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and several international operators have identified CCUS as a potential component of flare gas monetization projects, where captured CO2 from gas processing facilities could be reinjected into depleted reservoirs for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) while the processed gas is directed to power generation or LNG export.

TotalEnergies' OML 58 gas gathering project in the Niger Delta incorporates CO2 separation from produced gas with reinjection into a depleted reservoir compartment. While primarily driven by gas monetization economics rather than climate objectives, the project demonstrates the operational feasibility of CO2 injection in Nigerian geological settings and is building the technical workforce needed for dedicated storage projects.

Mozambique's LNG-CCUS Integration

Mozambique's Rovuma Basin LNG development, led by TotalEnergies and ExxonMobil, includes CO2 content of 4 to 12% in the raw natural gas, requiring removal before liquefaction. The Mozambique LNG project's environmental impact assessment evaluated CO2 reinjection into the depleted Windjammer reservoir as an alternative to atmospheric venting, with estimated storage capacity of 120 million tonnes. While the project has faced security-related delays, the technical feasibility assessment provides a template for integrating CCUS into gas development projects across the region.

What's Not Working

Infrastructure Gaps

CCUS projects require reliable electricity supply, industrial water, road or pipeline access for equipment delivery, and telecommunications for remote monitoring. Many of Sub-Saharan Africa's most promising geological storage sites are located in areas with limited infrastructure. Building a 100 km CO2 pipeline in rural Sub-Saharan Africa costs approximately $3 to $5 million per kilometer when accounting for land acquisition, community engagement, security, and supply chain logistics, compared to $1.5 to $2.5 million per kilometer in the US Gulf Coast, where pipeline right-of-way corridors, fabrication yards, and welding crews are readily available.

Workforce and Institutional Capacity

The region has fewer than 200 engineers and geoscientists with hands-on CCUS project experience, concentrated almost entirely in South Africa and Nigeria. University programs addressing subsurface CO2 storage are limited to the University of Cape Town, the University of the Witwatersrand, and the University of Port Harcourt. Scaling CCUS deployment to even 10 Mtpa across the region by 2035 would require a workforce of approximately 2,000 to 3,000 trained professionals, implying a ten-fold expansion of current capacity within a decade.

Financing Structures

International climate finance mechanisms have not effectively channeled capital to CCUS projects in Sub-Saharan Africa. The Green Climate Fund has approved zero CCUS projects globally, reflecting institutional skepticism about the technology's climate credentials. Bilateral development finance institutions, including the US International Development Finance Corporation and European Investment Bank, have shown limited appetite for CCUS investments in the region. Private capital providers view the combination of technology risk, country risk, and regulatory risk as prohibitively high without sovereign guarantees or first-loss capital from multilateral institutions.

Key Players

Established Organizations

• Sasol: South Africa's largest industrial emitter, advancing phased capture strategy at the Secunda facility with World Bank technical support
• TotalEnergies: Integrating CO2 management into Mozambique LNG and Nigeria gas gathering operations
• South African Centre for Carbon Capture and Storage (SACCCS): Government-backed research body leading the Zululand storage pilot
• Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL): Coordinating flare reduction and CO2 reinjection across upstream operations

Startups and Emerging Players

• Africa Carbon Capture (South Africa): Developing modular capture systems sized for mid-scale industrial emitters in the 50,000 to 200,000 tonne per year range
• CarbonVault (Kenya): Exploring basalt mineralization storage in the East African Rift, building on CarbFix methodology adapted for local geology
• CCS Africa Initiative: Regional advocacy and technical capacity-building organization connecting African project developers with international technology providers

Investors and Funders

• World Bank Group: Largest multilateral funder of CCUS capacity building in Sub-Saharan Africa through the Global Gas Flaring Reduction Partnership
• African Development Bank: Climate Action Window providing concessional financing for low-carbon infrastructure projects
• Climate Investment Funds: Clean Technology Fund has earmarked $150 million for CCUS projects in developing countries, with South Africa and Nigeria among priority markets

CCUS Cost and Capacity Benchmarks by Sub-Saharan African Context

Parameter	South Africa (Coal/CTL)	Nigeria (Gas Processing)	East Africa (Basalt)	Global Benchmark
Capture Cost ($/tonne CO2)	15-70	20-35	30-50	15-120
Transport Cost ($/tonne/100km)	8-15	10-18	12-25	3-8
Storage Cost ($/tonne)	8-20	5-15	15-40	5-20
Site Characterization Status	Pilot validated	Partially characterized	Early exploration	Fully characterized
Regulatory Framework	Draft regulations	Partial coverage	None	Comprehensive
Storage Capacity Estimate (Gt CO2)	80-150	30-60	20-40	N/A
WACC for Projects (%)	12-15	14-18	16-20	5-8 (OECD)

Action Checklist

• Conduct basin-scale CO2 storage characterization studies in priority formations, allocating minimum $10 million per basin for seismic acquisition, well testing, and geomechanical analysis
• Develop national CCUS regulatory frameworks through structured regulatory sandbox approaches that allow pilot projects to proceed under provisional rules
• Establish regional CCUS training programs at existing petroleum engineering faculties, targeting graduation of 200 to 300 CCUS-qualified professionals per year by 2030
• Design blended finance structures combining concessional multilateral capital with commercial debt and equity to reduce effective project WACC below 10%
• Integrate CCUS into Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to unlock Article 6 carbon market revenues and signal policy commitment to investors
• Prioritize high-concentration CO2 sources (gas processing, hydrogen production, fertilizer manufacturing) for initial capture projects where costs are $15 to $35 per tonne
• Build CO2 transport infrastructure plans into national energy master plans to enable hub-and-cluster development rather than isolated point-to-point projects
• Negotiate long-term CO2 offtake or storage agreements with international carbon removal buyers to provide revenue certainty for project financing

FAQ

Q: Why should Sub-Saharan Africa invest in CCUS when renewable energy is cheaper? A: CCUS and renewables address different parts of the emissions profile. Renewables displace fossil fuel power generation, but they cannot decarbonize cement manufacturing (which releases CO2 from calcination chemistry regardless of energy source), steel production, fertilizer synthesis, or natural gas processing. In Sub-Saharan Africa, industrial process emissions represent 22% of the regional total and are growing rapidly as industrialization accelerates. CCUS is the primary technology pathway for reducing these emissions. Additionally, several Sub-Saharan African economies depend on hydrocarbon exports, and integrating CCUS into oil and gas operations provides a pathway to lower the carbon intensity of those exports while maintaining economic activity during the energy transition.

Q: Is CO2 storage in Sub-Saharan Africa geologically safe? A: The geological formations being evaluated for CO2 storage in Sub-Saharan Africa are analogous to formations where CO2 has been successfully and safely stored for decades in other regions. Deep saline sandstone formations in the Karoo Basin and Niger Delta share key characteristics (porosity, permeability, caprock integrity) with the Utsira Formation under the North Sea, where Equinor's Sleipner project has stored over 20 million tonnes of CO2 since 1996 with no detected leakage. Basalt formations in East Africa offer the additional advantage of mineral carbonation, where injected CO2 reacts with basaltic minerals to form solid carbonate minerals within 2 to 5 years, permanently eliminating leakage risk. The key requirement is adequate site characterization before injection begins, which requires investment in subsurface data acquisition.

Q: What is the most viable near-term CCUS opportunity in the region? A: Gas processing facilities offer the lowest-cost capture opportunity because the CO2 is already separated from natural gas as part of standard processing operations, requiring only compression and transport for storage. Nigeria and Mozambique have multiple gas processing facilities that vent high-purity CO2 streams totaling an estimated 8 to 12 million tonnes per year. Converting these from venting to injection has capture costs of $15 to $25 per tonne, making them economically viable at current voluntary carbon market prices of $20 to $50 per tonne for engineered removals. Pairing these projects with EOR in depleted reservoirs further improves economics by generating oil production revenue.

Q: How can international climate finance better support CCUS in the region? A: Three structural changes would significantly increase capital flows. First, multilateral development banks should provide first-loss guarantees for CCUS projects, reducing the risk profile sufficiently to attract commercial lenders at affordable rates. Second, the Green Climate Fund should explicitly include CCUS in its investment framework, enabling access to concessional capital for projects that meet robust MRV standards. Third, developed countries should establish advance market commitments for CCUS-based carbon credits from Sub-Saharan Africa through Article 6 mechanisms, providing the revenue certainty that project developers need to secure financing. The Breakthrough Energy Catalyst program's model of blending philanthropic, public, and private capital offers a proven template that could be replicated for Sub-Saharan African CCUS.

Sources

• International Energy Agency. (2025). CCUS in Clean Energy Transitions: Global Status and Regional Outlook. Paris: IEA.
• African Development Bank. (2025). African Economic Outlook 2025: Climate and Energy Transition. Abidjan: AfDB.
• Global CCS Institute. (2025). Global Status of CCS 2025: Regional Assessment for Sub-Saharan Africa. Melbourne: Global CCS Institute.
• South African Centre for Carbon Capture and Storage. (2025). Zululand CO2 Storage Pilot: Technical Results and Lessons Learned. Johannesburg: SACCCS.
• World Bank Group. (2025). Carbon Capture and Storage in Developing Countries: Financing Pathways and Policy Frameworks. Washington, DC: World Bank.
• Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited. (2024). Gas Flaring Reduction and CO2 Management Strategy. Abuja: NNPCL.
• Verra. (2024). Verified Carbon Standard Methodology for Geological Carbon Dioxide Storage. Washington, DC: Verra.
• TotalEnergies. (2024). Mozambique LNG Environmental and Social Impact Assessment: Carbon Management Strategy. Paris: TotalEnergies SE.