Santos eyes cheaper carbon storage offshore East Timor at new $1.7bn APAC hub

Santos eyes cheaper carbon storage offshore East Timor at new $1.7bn APAC hub

Developing carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects in Southeast Asia is considerably cheaper than developing similar projects in more developed economies, such as Australia.

Indeed, Australia’s second largest oil and gas producer, Santos (ASX:STO), looks set to take advantage of this by developing the almost depleted Bayu Undan field, offshore East Timor, into a CCS facility estimated to cost over $1.7 billion. In turn, East Timor hopes to host the first merchant CCS scheme of its kind in Asia Pacific. It could be one of the world’s largest, and potentially provide much-need revenue for the tiny Southeast Asian nation. The ultimate vision is a multi-user infrastructure hub for receiving and storing carbon dioxide from multiple sources and industries across the region.

Initially, the plan is to capture carbon dioxide (CO2) from Santos’ Barossa gas development in northern Australia and then pipe it to East Timor, where it will be injected underground into Bayu Undan’s geological formations for storage.