Santos Completes Moomba CCS Project Trial
Santos on October 22 said it had injected approximately 100 metric tons of CO2 into depleted gas reservoirs as part of the final field trial for the Moomba carbon capture and storage (CCS) project. The scheme aims to capture 1.7mn metric tons/year of CO2 currently released at the Moomba gas processing plant and then re-inject it into underground reservoirs.
The successful injection occurred earlier this month in the Strzelecki field in the Cooper basin and the company will now finalise technical and commercial arrangements with the aim of having the 1.7mn mt/yr project ready for a final investment decision by the end of the year, Santos CEO Kevin Gallagher said. The Moomba CCS project ultimately has the potential to store up to 20mn mt/yr of CO2.
"We will need an approved methodology for CCS to be in place with the Clean Energy Regulator before we take a final investment decision on our Moomba CCS project because carbon credits are essential to make it stack up economically with the cost of abatement still at around A$30/mt," Gallagher said.
The company’s aim is to drive these costs lower with scale and experience, but the first step is to generate carbon credits to enable initial development, he said, adding that the successful test paves the way for large-scale CCS to drive down Australia's carbon emissions.