Chevron and Woodside have secured a greenhouse gas assessment permit off the WA coast, as the pair explore selling carbon capture as a product to industrial users.
Chevron and Woodside have secured a greenhouse gas assessment permit off the Western Australian coast, as the pair explore selling carbon capture as a product to industrial users.
A permit covering around 8,500 square kilometres off the Northern Carnarvon Basin has been granted to a Chevron-operated joint venture, near the Wheatstone natural gas facility at Onslow.
Chevron holds a 70 per cent interest in the JV alongside Woodside’s 30 per cent, and the pair hope to develop the field as part of their emissions abatement strategy.
Chevron currently operates Australia’s only large-scale carbon capture and storage facility off Barrow Island, but the project has been plagued by efficiency issues since it was commissioned in 2019.
Chevron Australia energy transition general manager David Fallon said the JV partners saw the potential for carbon capture at the field beyond their own project emissions.
“This permit has the potential to help our operations as we aim to deliver lower carbon energy to a growing world,” he said.
“With decades of safe and reliable operational experience, and extensive subsurface knowledge, the Joint Venture is well positioned to assess the storage potential of the permit and evaluate a hub model for third party emissions.”
Chevron hopes to farm down five per cent of its share in the project to Korea’s GS Caltex – a move which would be subject to approvals.
It reiterated that the JV hoped to store emissions from Chevron’s LNG operations and other third parties.
Woodside vice president of new energy for APAC, Menno Weustink, said the project aligned with its emissions targets.
“Woodside’s view is that carbon capture and storage has an important role to play in the global energy transition,” he said.
“This permit is aligned with our strategy to develop lower carbon solutions and could contribute to achieving greenhouse gas emission reduction targets.”
It comes the same week as the Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA released a report into carbon capture in WA, which suggested there was an $80 billion economic opportunity for the state being hampered by a lack of federal political will.
A Woodside-operated joint venture is currently exploring the potential for large-scale multi-user CCS at the Angel field, alongside Yara Pilbara – in the hopes the field could help the latter decarbonise its operations in the Burrup strategic industrial area.
In December, Woodside struck an agreement with four Japanese companies to assess the potential of establishing carbon capture and storage value chain between Australia and Japan.
