Santos eyes final approval for giant CCS project

Santos eyes final approval for giant CCS project

Australia's Santos plans to take a final investment decision (FID) on its proposed Moomba carbon capture and storage (CCS) project that it said would be among the largest in the world.

Santos chairman Keith Spence told shareholders during the company's annual general meeting last week that its $155 million Moomba CCS project could move ahead once new legislation comes through from the federal government in Canberra.

“The 1.7 million tonne per annum project is waiting on a methodology to be approved under the Clean Energy Regulator's framework so that CCS projects can generate Australian Carbon Credit Units,” he said. “We anticipate this will be in place by September this year, paving the way for what will be the second-largest, and the lowest-cost, CCS project in the world.”

Last October Santos said the CCS scheme will be one of the lowest cost projects globally, based on at their estimate of around A$30 per tonne.

At the time Santos said it had injected about 100 metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) into depleted gas reservoirs as part of the final field trial for the Moomba CCS facility in the Cooper basin.

“With the world still relying on hydrocarbon fuels for 80% of its primary energy, zero emissions