THE federal government has committed $60 million to fund development of a carbon sequestration project as part of the Gorgon natural gas project off Western Australia’s north-west coast. Believed to be the world’s biggest carbon dioxide capture and storage project, the funding comes from the $500 million ‘low emissions technology demonstration fund’. Project operator Chevron hopes to capture carbon dioxide from the Gorgon gas field and inject it deep underground, amid claims the project has the potential to reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions by up to three million tonnes each year. The CO2 injection project will begin with a commercial-scale demonstration project involving liquefying the carbon dioxde so it can be piped to the injection site, injecting it 2.5 kilometres underground into a geological structure. Long-term monitoring is intended.