Chevron Gets Another Permit to Study Potential CCS Offshore Australia

Chevron Gets Another Permit to Study Potential CCS Offshore Australia
The G-20-AP permit covers an area of about 857.92 miles adjacent to Barrow Island.
Image by Trung Nguyen via iStock

A joint venture operated by Chevron Corp. has received a greenhouse gas assessment permit to assess the potential for carbon dioxide (CO2) capture and storage (CCS) in the Northern Carnarvon Basin offshore Western Australia.

The G-20-AP permit covers an area of 2,222 square kilometers (857.92 miles) adjacent to Barrow Island, Chevron Australia Pty. Ltd. said in a statement.

“Carbon capture and storage is an important tool and this permit award demonstrates the potential to lower the carbon intensity of our operations as well as potentially third-party emissions”, Chevron Australia energy transition general manager David Fallon said.

Chevron Australia’s partners are Mobil Australia Resources Co. Pty. Ltd. and Shell Australia Pty. Ltd.

“Chevron and the Joint Venture will now start to assess the technical and commercial feasibility of the geological storage of carbon dioxide in the permit area”, said the statement on Chevron Australia’s website.

Last August Chevron Australia announced a similar permit for an area spanning about 8,467 square kilometers (3,269.1 miles) offshore Onslow, Western Australia, in the same basin.

The G-18-AP permit went to a separate joint venture also operated by United States oil giant Chevron. The co-venturer is Australia’s Woodside Energy Group Ltd.

Chevron Australia also holds non-operating stakes in CCS assessment permits G-9-AP, G-10-AP and G-11-AP.

Chevron Australia already has an operating CCS injection system. On August 8, 2019, Chevron Australia announced the start of operation of the project at its Gorgon gas facility on Barrow Island. 

However, Gorgon CCS captured in the last fiscal year (FY) just 30 percent of the carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted from natural gas extraction by the Gorgon LNG and domestic gas project, according to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA).

The underperformance reflects a trend among CCS projects across the globe and casts doubt “on the financial viability of ambitious CCS plans by Australian governments and companies”, IEEFA reported November 28.

FY2023–24 marks the carbon capture and storage (CCS) project’s lowest performance since it started operating August 2019, IEEFA said November 28, 2024. Gorgon CCS had a capture rate of 34 percent in FY2022–23 and 33 percent in FY2021–22, according to calculations by the Cleveland, Ohio-based think tank. Chevron Australia’s financial year starts July and ends the following June.

The CCS project had been approved on the condition it captures, on a five-year rolling average from 2016, at least 80 percent of CO2 emissions from wells drilled for the gas facility, according to information published online by Chevron Australia. The gas facility, which has a liquefied natural gas (LNG) capacity of 15.6 million tons per annum and a domestic gas supply capacity of 300 terajoules a day, sources feed from the Gorgon and Jansz-Io gas fields.

Chevron Australia says in an online fact sheet it is “committed to increasing carbon dioxide injection rates at Gorgon CCS in accordance with its environmental approvals”.

“A project has commenced that aims to expand the system’s capacity to manage water found within the reservoir where carbon dioxide is stored, thereby reducing reservoir pressure and enabling increased carbon dioxide injection rates”, the fact sheet states.

“In addition to this project, Chevron Australia continues to explore options to further increase carbon dioxide injection rates within the system”, it adds.

Chevron says it is developing CCS projects as both a business opportunity and a means of reaching its goal of net zero upstream emissions by 2050.

To contact the author, email jov.onsat@rigzone.com


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