Chevron’s struggles with carbon capture and sequestration off the Western Australian coast have drawn a hostile shot across the gas giant’s bows as the state’s Environmental Protection Authority seeks a major tightening of carbon reduction targets at the Gorgon LNG project which hosts the CCS facility.

The EPA, whose recommendations are often watered down by WA’s state government, says conditions requiring Chevron to sequester at least 80 per cent of the carbon dioxide emissions from the gas field under the seabed and aim to eventually bury 100 per cent of the CO2 need to be beefed up “to make Chevron’s obligations clearer”.