More energy companies, including South Korea's Hanwha Corp. and the Netherlands-based Shell Gas & Power Developments B.V., have joined the consortium for a major carbon capture and storage project in Malaysia, SK Innovation Co. said Friday.

The state-run Korea National Oil Corp. and Air Liquide Korea, an affiliate of French industrial gas provider Air Liquide S.A., are also among those joining the Shepherd CCS project in the Southeast Asian country, SK Innovation said.

The Shepherd project was launched in August last year, with the initial agreement involving a group of South Korean companies -- SK Energy Co., SK Earthon Co., Samsung Engineering Co., Samsung Heavy Industries Co. and Lotte Chemical Corp. -- and Malaysia's state-run oil company National Petroleum Ltd., better known as Petronas.

The project aims to capture carbon dioxide emitted from industrial sites in Korea and collect it in local carbon capture plants before transporting it to Malaysia for the onshore storage or offshore sequestration.

The memorandum of understanding has been renewed in accordance with the joining of the new participants, SK Innovation said.

SK Innovation, the parent of SK Energy and SK Earthon, said earlier the Shepherd plan will be a major project in Asia that covers the whole cycle of the CCS value chain.

The participating companies have tentatively picked the locations for the local capture plants in South Korea and the storage site in Malaysia.

With the feasibility study under way, the participants plan to look for additional sites for the capture plants and storage units to speed up the process, SK Innovation said. (Yonhap)