Moomba CCS project gets A$15mn grant
Santos' Moomba carbon capture and storage (CCS) project has been awarded a A$15mn ($11.6mn) grant from the Australian government's Carbon Capture Use and Storage Development Fund, the company said on June 8.
The A$210mn project in South Australia will store 1.7mn metric tons/year of carbon dioxide with a capacity of up to 20mn mt/yr across the Cooper basin. The project will help reduce emissions in the natural gas sector, the company said.
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Santos CEO Kevin Gallagher said Moomba will also be one of the lowest-cost projects in the world at A$25-30/mt, driving towards the Australian government's stretch goal to compress, transport and store carbon dioxide for less than A$20/mt.
"Australia has a natural competitive advantage in CCS with known high-quality, stable geological storage basins capable of injection at a rate of 300mn mt/yr for at least 100 years – the same basins that have safely and permanently held oil and gas in place for tens of millions of years,” he said.
Gallagher said the company is expected to take a final investment decision on the Moomba CCS project in the second half of this year.
"We are technically ready, but an approved methodology for CCS projects to generate Australian carbon credit units through the Emissions Reduction Fund is essential to make the project stack up economically,” he said. "With South Australia's Port Bonython in the running to be a national hydrogen export hub, Santos is already attracting strong interest from Japanese and Korean customers and investors who are looking to Australia to help them reduce their emissions.”