South Australian companies Santos and Beach Energy have officially opened the nation’s first large-scale onshore carbon capture and storage project at Moomba in the Cooper Basin.
The Moomba Carbon Capture and Storage project (Moomba CCS) started up in October last year and has already sequestered 340,000 tonnes of CO2-equivalent.
At full ramp up, the Moomba CCS can store up to 1.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year.
That’s equivalent to taking 700,000 cars off the road – or approximately 10 per cent of South Australia’s total annual emissions in 2022.
As the Moomba CCS grows over subsequent phases of development, the project has potential to provide carbon storage for companies across Australia and the Asian region.
South Australian premier Peter Malinauskas said the opening was historic for the state.
“Through great South Australian companies in Santos and Beach, the gasfields at Moomba have the potential to become a storage site for carbon generated by industries across Australia and throughout the Asian region,” Malinauskas said.
Santos chief executive and managing director Kevin Gallagher celebrated the announcement.
“We have made history out at Moomba,” he said. “At full injection rates Moomba CCS avoids more CO2 in four days than 10,000 electric vehicles save in one year.”
Beach Energy chief executive and managing director Brett Woods also congratulated all parties involved in the “landmark” project.
“We’re proud to be partnering with Santos on real projects that are delivering real emissions abatement, in the South Australian outback,” Woods said.
“At capacity, the emissions reduction delivered by Moomba CCS is equivalent to taking 700,000 petrol cars off our roads each year.
“And that could be just the beginning. We already have many more millions of tonnes of CO2 storage capacity available for potential expansion cases.”
Global energy research firm, Wood Mackenzie, estimates Australia could unlock up to A$600 billion in revenue by creating a CCS industry and becoming a storage hub for the Asia-Pacific region.
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