Carbon capture and storage in Thailand: Progress, challenges, and opportunities

Thailand has signalled that carbon capture and storage (CCS) will be integral to its decarbonisation pathway and it is now moving towards a clearer regulatory environment.

Several government bodies are coordinating the legal and technical groundwork. The Department of Mineral Fuels (DMF) within the Ministry of Energy manages petroleum operations and is spearheading amendments to the Petroleum Act B.E. 2514 (1971) to accommodate CCS. The Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning (ONEP) is responsible for overarching climate policy and master-planning. In addition, in 2022, a Climate Change Subcommittee on Driving GHG Reduction through CCS Technologies (CCS Subcommittee) was officially established to consider and provide recommendations on practical issues including legal measures to harmonise the work of line ministries, regulators and state-owned enterprises and to accelerate deployment in the CCS sectors.

Currently, there is no stand-alone statute governing CCS activities in Thailand; the Petroleum Act, drafted for oil and gas exploration, provides the closest analogue. To close that gap, the DMF has prepared an amendment to the Petroleum Act to introduce a new category of “Carbon Operations”, covering (a) exploration for carbon storage(including geological and geophysical surveys to determine the suitability of subsurface formations) and (b) the injection of captured CO₂ for permanent sequestration. Petroleum concessionaires as well as third-party operators will be permitted to undertake carbon operations within designated exploration blocks or production areas.

The draft sets out a licensing framework under which the Minister of Energy may delineate specific areas for carbon operations. Licences must be awarded through competitive bidding against criteria that will be elaborated in Ministerial Regulations, with bidders assessed on geological suitability, environmental risk management, technical capability and financial robustness. Once licensed, operators will be bound by conditions that address operational costs, maximum authorised injection volumes, monitoring and verification (including continuous surveillance for leakage or migration), incident reporting, remediation and site closure. Site closure may only proceed when all licence conditions have been satisfied or following express approval, and operators will remain liable for post-closure monitoring. The obligation for post-closure monitoring will be transferred to the DMF after operators have completed the injection of carbon into the storage site, provided the required financial security, and dismantled all installations or structures used for carbon injection.

Progress has been steady but slow. Following a public consultation in August–September 2023 the draft amendment to the Petroleum Act was revised and, as of July 2025, is under review by the Ministry’s executive committee. In parallel, on 25 July 2025 the CCS Subcommittee endorsed geological exploration for CCS in the area of the Gulf of Thailand and reviewed a twelve-project National CCS Implementation Plan.

However, principal challenges remain. First, until a dedicated CCS statute is enacted—legal uncertainty persists, dampening investor confidence. Secondly, underground tenure and land-use rights for CCS are not yet clearly allocated, complicating feasibility studies and bankability assessments. Thirdly, although the Board of Investment (BOI) has recognised natural gas separation plants and the manufacture of petrochemical products using CCS technology as eligible activities for investment incentives, Thailand has not introduced sufficient fiscal incentives, grant funding or carbon-pricing mechanisms to adequately offset the high capital costs of early-stage CCS projects.

Notwithstanding these hurdles, policymakers have demonstrated a clear intent to align domestic regulation with international best practice and to position Thailand as a regional CCS hub. Stakeholders contemplating participation in Thai CCS projects should monitor the progress of the amendments to the Petroleum Act and engage early with DMF and ONEP to shape forthcoming Ministerial Regulations on monitoring, reporting and verification.

We would like to thank, Peemawat Dussadeepritipun, for his contribution to this post.