Kuwait has joined a growing list of oil exporters that are seeking to harvest carbon dioxide from industrial plants to put to use in aging oilfields. The added attraction for the Gulf oil states is that such initiatives, in addition to helping curb global carbon emissions, could also ameliorate the region's worsening gas crunch. Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation, or , and the state-owned , have agreed to exchange information about oil recovery technology using carbon capture and storage (CCS). They would also set up a committee to discuss the application of CCS technology to Kuwait's oilfields, the Japanese government-owned company said in a . Jogmec is hoping the collaboration will lead to invitations for Japanese companies to join oil projects in Kuwait, which has been wary of allowing foreign participation in its upstream oil sector. For Kuwait, the potential payoff would be the chance to substitute carbon dioxide for part of the natural gas it currently injects into its biggest oilfields to create the reservoir pressure vital to maintaining crude output. Kuwait, which has suffered summer power cuts for years, hopes to divert gas from its oilfields to its power stations. Last summer, to end the fuel shortage, the emirate started importing liquefied natural gas from as far away as eastern Siberia. Carbon dioxide is already known to be at least as effective as natural gas, and under some conditions more effective, at pushing crude out of oil reservoirs. It is widely used for this purpose in parts of the US and some other locations in which geological deposits of natural gas and carbon dioxide have been found close together. Unfortunately, capturing carbon dioxide from a power plant or industrial facility and transporting it to an appropriate oilfield is usually a much more costly proposition. Moreover, if part of the rationale for carbon capture is to achieve a permanent reduction in emissions, then precautions must be taken to prevent leakage of "stored" carbon dioxide. In the many countries that do no set economic penalties for carbon emissions, CCS can only make economic sense if cost of capturing and transporting carbon dioxide can be offset by putting the gas to work before it is permanently stored. Currently, such economics are most compelling in states that are simultaneously seeking to prolong the productive life of mature oilfields while conserving natural gas. Another requirement is that the installations from which carbon dioxide could most conveniently be captured should be located reasonably close to producing oilfields. There are not many states in which all those conditions are met, but Kuwait is one. So are Abu Dhabi and the eastern province of Saudi Arabia. Abu Dhabi is of carbon dioxide pipelines to transport emissions from industrial plants for use in enhanced oil recovery projects at Habshan, the emirate's biggest onshore oilfield. Saudi Arabia last November entered a with Germany, the Netherlands and the UK to co-operate on CCS development.