Santos’ carbon capture, storage project at Moomba passes environmental impact stage
A giant SA carbon project creating thousands of jobs for decades has passed a significant milestone – but it can now avoid all public consultation.
SA News
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A project that would underpin thousands of jobs in South Australia for decades ahead has passed a significant State Government milestone.
The environmental impact report on the $210m proposal by SA’s biggest company, Santos, to capture and store carbon dioxide underground has been accepted by the government and will not require public consultation.
The project is a key plank in Santos’ ambition to make hydrogen from natural gas – a controversial process opposed by much of the environmental lobby.
Santos aims to make its own operations carbon neutral by 2040, and sees capturing the carbon dioxide produced at Moomba and making hydrogen as avenues to long-lasting gas extraction in the Cooper Basin, supporting thousands of jobs.
It also wants to store CO2 from other Australia companies and accept imports from countries.
It successfully ran a trial of 100t late last year in preparation for what would be SA’s first carbon capture and storage (CCS) industry.
“SA and Santos are leading the pack when it comes to CCS and the world is taking notice,” Santos managing director Kevin Gallagher told The Advertiser.
“Momentum continues to build around our Moomba carbon capture and storage project, as does our confidence in delivering it as the cheapest CCS project in the world.
“With access to international carbon markets, large-scale CCS could be a new industry for Australia to provide emissions reduction opportunities for other countries as well.
“Santos is already seeing huge interest from Japanese and Korean investors in this opportunity.
“CCS has the potential to be a game changer for Santos and for SA.
“It will create hundreds of jobs during construction and maintain thousands of jobs over decades to come.”
State laws require government assessment and classification of the environmental impact report and accompanying statement of environmental objectives for such a project.
Classified as having a “low impact” on the environment, it will still need to meet technical requirements but does not require the public consultation phase of a “medium-impact” project.
Santos did consult government agencies, landholders, two traditional owner groups and two environmental organisations.
An SA Government report said it was satisfied “all comments raised during the consultation have been adequately addressed”.
However, the technology has been heavily criticised with former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull saying last week it was “another delaying tactic by the fossil fuel sector”.
A report published in December by the Victoria Energy Policy Centre estimated using CCS with coal-fired electricity generation would cost six times as much as renewable energy backed by firming from sources such as batteries and pumped hydro.
Santos also will face opposition over producing hydrogen from gas.
Co-ordinated by the Smart Energy Council, a lobby group of businesses and the Victorian and ACT governments have established a certification scheme where only hydrogen produced from renewable electricity generation would be acceptable.
This is despite companies such as Santos believing large-scale hydrogen production from gas coupled with CCS is the fastest and most efficient route to a hydrogen economy.
Before making a final investment decision, Santos is negotiating with the federal Clean Energy Regulator about carbon credits, which would bring down the costs from an estimated $30/tonne to store carbon.
Carbon capture, use and storage is one of the five core technologies the Federal Government wants to employ nationally to reduce emissions. It allocated $264m in last week’s budget to fund its development, following a $50m allocation last budget.
“The Morrison Government’s investment will reduce technical and commercial barriers to deploying these technologies and identifying potential project sites,” Energy and Emissions Reduction Minister Angus Taylor said.
“It will also crowd in new investment from the private sector, supporting jobs and Australia’s economic recovery, particularly in regional areas.”
Originally published as Santos’ carbon capture, storage project at Moomba passes environmental impact stage
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