A joint venture between Woodside Energy Ltd, BP Developments Australia Pty Ltd, Japan Australia LNG (MIMI) Pty Ltd, which is owned equally by Mitsubishi Corporation and Mitsui & Co., Ltd, Shell Australia Pty Ltd and Chevron Australia Pty Ltd, has been awarded a greenhouse gas assessment permit in the Northern Carnarvon Basin off the north-western coast of Western Australia.
The permit, which is located approximately 125 km north-west of Dampier and covers an area of 1775 km2, contains the depleted Angel Gas Field. The joint venture has extensive existing data and knowledge of the field following decades of petroleum exploration and production.
The permit award represents an important milestone for the joint venture as it continues to assess the technical, regulatory and commercial feasibility of capturing carbon emitted by multiple industries located near Karratha in Western Australia. The joint venture will now pursue evaluation and appraisal work to investigate the potential for the geological storage of carbon dioxide in the permit area.
A multi-user carbon capture and storage (CCS) project near Karratha would be ideally located to aggregate emissions from various existing sources. It would also have the potential to facilitate the development of new lower-carbon industries, such as the production of hydrogen and ammonia, by providing a local solution for emissions.
The size of the CCS facility is subject to the completion of additional technical, regulatory and commercial studies, but notionally it could have a processing capacity of up to five million tonnes of carbon dioxide per annum.
Woodside CEO Meg O’Neill welcomed the award of the permit as another key step towards the development of a pioneering, multi-user CCS project near Karratha.
“The successful deployment of CCS in Western Australia has the potential to create new jobs, protect current jobs and contribute to achieving greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction targets.
“For Woodside, it will be an important addition to our portfolio of carbon management options, as we work towards our own aspiration of net zero by 2050,” she said.
Woodside, bp, MIMI, Shell and Chevron will each hold a twenty percent (20%) participating interest in the Permit, with Woodside as Operator.