Test could prove region’s future as carbon capture and storage hub

A $20 MILLION trial for injecting and storing carbon dioxide more than 2km underground could hold the key to transforming the southern Surat Basin into a hub for reducing south-east Queensland’s carbon emissions.

CTSCo will begin drilling a test well at the Moonie site this month.

A $20 MILLION trial for injecting and storing carbon dioxide more than 2km underground could hold the key to transforming the southern Surat Basin into a hub for reducing south-east Queensland’s carbon emissions.

Glencore’s Carbon Transport and Storage Company has reached a new milestone in the development of its carbon capture and storage project in Queensland.

In December 2019, the Queensland Government granted CTSCo a greenhouse gas (GHG)

exploration permit in the southern part of the Surat Basin near the Moonie oilfields.

The permit enables CTSCo to thoroughly assess the viability of safely and sustainably storing

CO2 more than 2.3km underground at a tenement – EPQ10 – about 230km west of

Toowoomba.

It follows from the company’s original plans to perform a test injection into a potable aquifer 1200m deep at a Glencore-owned property 15km west of Wandoan.

Those plans are now off the table.

Community reaction to the original plans at Wandoan was mixed, with some vocal opposition, including Callide MP Colin Boyce, who used part of his maiden speech to parliament in 2018 to speak out against the project.

The Wandoan test injection would have seen 60,000 tonnes of “supercritical” liquid CO2 injected into the Great Artesian Basin’s Precipice Sandstone Aquifer at Wandoan, initially acidifying a plume of water to a pH of 5, before it diluted as it mixed and returned to a pH of 7.

Listening to the community, CTSCo made the decision to relinquish its permit at Wandoan and start the project at a new location, giving up several years of site-specific work.

Over the next few months, the company will be conducting a number of activities to determine the suitability of the Moonie site for long-term CO2 storage.

It has received $20 million in funding for the work at Moonie, funded by the Australian National Low Emissions Coal Research and Development, with $10 million from the Federal Government and $10 million from Low Emission Technology Australia (formerly COAL21).

No CO2 injections are planned any time soon.

The Moonie site is significantly deeper than the Wandoan site and based of previous oil and gas exploration work, the aquifer being targeted is believed to be non-potable.

Work being undertaking in the short term at Moonie includes the drilling of two appraisal wells, a seismic survey and a range of research and development projects within the tenement.

Early civil works were undertaken at site in late July.

The first well will commence drilling in mid-August with the second well planned for around November.

CTSCo is in discussions with the Millmerran Power Station, owned and operated by Intergen, to provide CO2 for the project.

In May 2020, the Australian Government’s Technology Investment Roadmap discussion

paper identified CCS as an important technology to reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas

emissions.

Large-scale deployment of CCS would also support mining jobs and investment

across regional Australia over the long term.

In a statement to The Chronicle, the company said it continues “to work closely with local communities and relevant stakeholders to fully investigate the potential economic, environmental and social benefits this project can provide to Queensland and the region.”

More information about the project and its history can be found at www.ctsco.com.au.

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