Carbon capture has a delivery problem, and Wood Mackenzie has put a price on solving it.
In a global report on CO₂ transport infrastructure released on 14 October 2026, the research firm estimates that the CO₂ transport industry could be worth USD 211 billion by 2060. That level of investment could support the movement of around 3 billion tonnes of CO₂ a year, including 200 million tonnes carried across international borders.
The headline number matters less than the message behind it. According to Wood Mackenzie, transport is increasingly deciding whether carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) projects are viable at all. Capture equipment gets the attention. Pipes and ships decide the economics.
Pipelines Will Carry Most of the Capital
Wood Mackenzie expects more than 80% of global CO₂ transport investment to go into pipelines, linking emitters to storage sites. Asia Pacific accounts for roughly 60% of the total, followed by North America and Europe.
For the US market, that ranking is a useful signal. North America sits second in a global build-out that the firm sizes in the hundreds of billions of dollars, and pipelines are the dominant asset class in that build-out.
Developers of Gulf Coast storage hubs and Midwest capture projects already know the pattern. A capture unit without a route to a permitted well is a stranded asset. A shared trunkline with several anchor customers is a business.
That distinction will shape where capital flows.
Old Gas Lines Could Cut the Bill in Half
One of the most practical findings concerns existing infrastructure. Wood Mackenzie says repurposing existing gas pipelines could reduce capital expenditure by over 60% and halve total CO₂ transport costs.
The firm adds a sensible caveat: not all infrastructure can be repurposed, and rigorous assessment will be needed. Pipe metallurgy, pressure ratings, route condition and the impurity specification of the CO₂ stream all decide whether an old line can be given a new job.
Even so, the opportunity is large. Mature gas basins tend to sit near both industrial emitters and depleted reservoirs. Where a line can be converted, a project avoids much of the cost and time of greenfield construction.
For operators, the questions to work through early include:
- Whether existing pipe and compression can handle dense-phase CO₂
- What CO₂ purity and impurity limits the route can accept
- How conversion changes permitting timelines against a new build
- Which emitters along the corridor could share the line
- How long the converted asset can operate before major replacement
Pipe or Ship Comes Down to Distance and Volume
The report also sets out where shipping fits. Wood Mackenzie finds pipeline and shipping costs are comparable over distances of up to 1,000 km. Beyond that, the choice depends on route and scale.
“Geography sets the transport challenge, while economics determines whether CO₂ moves by pipe, ship or both,” said Stephanie Chiang, Senior Research Analyst, CCUS, at Wood Mackenzie.
Her colleague Bo Frohlich, Research Analyst, CCUS, put the trade-off plainly: “Pipelines and ships have different trade-offs; pipelines become more economic as volumes scale.”
Shipping costs have their own drivers. Fuel and electricity make up more than 50% of the levelised cost of CO₂ shipping, according to the firm, and low-pressure vessels can cut costs by up to 34% over long distances compared with medium-pressure designs. The difference is marginal on shorter European routes but decisive over the distances typical of Asia Pacific trade.
Those findings give shipowners, terminal developers and vessel designers a clear target for cost reduction.
Cross-Border CO₂ Trade Starts to Look Like an Energy Market
The most striking part of the analysis is the scale of international flows. Wood Mackenzie projects that Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan could need 164 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) of cross-border CO₂ transport by 2060, while Australia and Southeast Asia could offer 187 Mtpa of storage capacity.
Japan alone may need to ship nearly 50 Mtpa of CO₂ abroad. CarbonCredits.com, reporting on the analysis, compared that with the roughly 65 million tonnes of LNG the country imports each year. In Japan, the firm finds shipping becomes cheaper than offshore pipelines beyond 400 km at a volume of 5 Mtpa.
Cross-border movement is not free. Wood Mackenzie estimates it could add around USD 40 per tonne of CO₂, close to 30% of Japan’s total levelised CCS cost. That is a real cost, but it is also a measure of how much value efficient transport can create.
If storage-short economies are willing to pay to move CO₂, which regions are best placed to receive it?
And how quickly can contracts and rules catch up with the engineering?
Policy Will Decide How Fast the Network Grows
Wood Mackenzie is direct on this point. Policy and bilateral agreements will determine whether cross-border CCUS networks are realised, and the firm points to ongoing gaps in bilateral agreements, liability frameworks and economic incentives.
That is a solvable list. Each item is a matter of drafting, negotiation and alignment, not a technical barrier. Europe has already shown that shared transport and storage can connect emitters to offshore storage across national lines, and the Wood Mackenzie numbers suggest Asia Pacific is next.
For US developers, the lesson applies at home. Interstate pipelines, shared hubs and long-term storage contracts all depend on clear rules on access, liability and tariffs. Projects that settle those questions early will be easier to finance.
Investors will read the report as a map of where infrastructure returns are likely to sit: in shared, high-volume assets that serve many emitters over decades.
Carbon capture proved the chemistry. The next USD 211 billion will be spent proving the logistics.
