WA throws more cash at carbon injection, but flagship project still fails to hit mark

The West Australian government will tip $26 million into two new carbon capture, utilisation and storage hubs in the Pilbara and Mid-West.

But the technology is still failing to live up to expectations in WA, with the latest figures from Chevron’s Gorgon carbon capture and storage project – the largest in the world – revealing it fell 2.65 million tonnes of stored carbon dioxide short of its obligations last financial year.

Chevron’s Gorgon carbon capture at Barrow Island.Credit: Chevron

The technology involves the removal of carbon from industrial processes like gas extraction and injecting it back into underground reservoirs. The government’s action plan said there were about 45 facilities operating globally capturing about 50 million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually.

It has been touted by the fossil fuel sector as a way to decarbonise fossil fuel projects, making them more viable as the global energy sector moves towards net-zero emissions, but the biggest projects have been riddled with problems.

Environmental groups claim the technology is being used to prolong the life of fossil fuels and delay the uptake of renewables.

The government has announced a $15 million grant will support Australian Gas Infrastructure Group to build a pipeline for an offshore multi-user carbon capture and storage hub in the Pilbara.

It will also spend $11 million to help build the Cygnus CCS Hub in the Mid-West, which will store 530 kilotonnes of carbon dioxide from the Kerry Stokes-backed Beach Energy and Mitsui E&P Australia’s joint Waitsia Gas Plant, as well as Wesfarmers and CSBP’s Kwinana ammonia plant.

Premier Roger Cook said carbon capture technology would play an important role for hard-to-abate industries, and he was positioning WA as a world leader in the field.

Chevron’s Gorgon carbon capture and storage project has failed to meet its environmental approval obligation to inject 80 per cent of the carbon removed from extracted gas from underwater gas fields annually.

In Chevron’s 2023-24 Gorgon Environmental Performance Report released earlier this month, the company reported 1.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide was injected – equating to 30 per cent of the 5.3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide removed from extracted natural gas.

The surplus is released into the atmosphere.

This result is worse than the year before, when Chevron injected 34 per cent of the 5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide removed.

Under its environmental approvals, the company must purchase carbon credits to make up for every tonne of carbon dioxide it fails to bury.

The company said the carbon removal, capture and injection technology was working well, and the problems related to pressure management of water in reservoirs deep below the earth.

A spokesman said Gorgon’s CCS was working.

“More than 10 million tonnes of carbon dioxide have been stored to date. This is carbon abatement on a global scale,” he said.

“We are committed to increasing carbon dioxide injection rates at Gorgon CCS in accordance with its environmental approvals.

“While some use the challenges at Gorgon to discredit CCS, we have shown that we can capture and safely store CO2 at a globally significant scale, and, as we have announced, we are progressing clear and actionable plans to address the challenges.”

But Conservation Council of WA executive director Jess Beckerling said there were no projects operating anywhere in the world that had delivered carbon pollution dumping on time, on budget, or in the quantities promised.

“It is far safer and cheaper to avoid fossil fuel emissions in the first place,” she said.

“Carbon dumping is akin to big tobacco companies telling people to keep smoking because a cure is around the corner.

“The only safe way to prevent catastrophic climate change is to phase out the use of fossil fuels in favour of renewable energy.”

Chamber of Minerals and Energy WA chief executive Rebecca Tomkinson said governments and industry needed every tool at their disposal to achieve net-zero.

“CCUS is one of those tools – and an especially valuable one in a state blessed with the natural geology to safely store carbon dioxide underground or under the seabed,” she said.

“The scale and extent of policy support for CCUS in other jurisdictions – including the US, Europe and Middle East – means failure to act quickly risks WA playing catch up as investment goes elsewhere.”

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