PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Oil and gas major Santos this week reported that its Moomba carbon capture and storage (CCS) project is progressing at pace and on track for delivery in 2024.

The company told shareholders that two of the most critical pieces of equipment, worth about A$30-million, were making their way to site after arriving in South Australia last week.

The imminent arrival in Moomba of the compressor and turbine follows the project recently marking the 60% completion milestone, with first injection on track for 2024.

Santos energy solutions president Brett Woods said Moomba CCS would be the start of an exciting new industry, with carbon-abated gas opening potential new revenue streams.

“Moomba CCS will help Australia reach net zero. Once complete, the project will support Santos to reduce our own emissions, but crucially we’re also working with other hard-to-abate sectors to look at ways of using Moomba CCS to help reduce their emissions, too,” Woods said.

“With the turbine and compressor expected to arrive in Moomba any day now, we’re excited to continue the strong progress we’re making so we can inject carbon dioxide (CO₂) into the depleted reservoirs from next year.

“Importantly, Santos is looking to the future. Through our energy transition business, Santos Energy Solutions, we are looking at CCS and other decarbonisation and clean fuels projects that will play a critical role in supporting Australia, and our region, transition to a lower carbon future.”

Following first injection, Moomba CCS will store up to 1.7-million tonnes of CO₂ a year, in the same geological reservoirs that held oil and gas in place for tens of millions of years.

The progress on Moomba CCS follows Santos’ recent announcement of the execution of four memoranda of understanding for the proposed storage of CO₂ emissions from third parties at the Bayu-Undan CCS project, offshore Timor-Leste.

Woods said with 30 CCS projects in operation around the world storing over 42-million tonnes of CO₂ per year, there is strong demand for CCS services.

“Increased deployment of CCS is critical to achieve the world’s climate goals. Santos’ progress on CCS reaffirms our strategy and our commitment to delivering emissions reductions solutions for our own operations as well as those of our customers, and third parties,” Woods said.

“There is a broad acceptance of CCS as a decarbonisation strategy, and with our plans also continuing for trials of direct air capture (DAC) in the Cooper basin later this year, there is potential for significant DAC with CCS scale-up, if successful.

“At Santos, we’re working on real projects that aim to deliver real emissions abatement, in the South Australian outback. It’s an exciting time to be part of the energy transition.”