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the most environmentally friendly projects of In announcing the government’s technology
their kind. Neither NextDecade’s Rio Grande roadmap, Australian Energy Minister Angus
LNG nor G2 Net-Zero LNG’s proposed facility Taylor said AUD18bn ($13.18bn) of funding had
have yet reached the FID stage, however. Indeed, been earmarked for a portfolio of low-emissions
NextDecade has suggested Rio Grande could technologies that included “clean” hydrogen.
reach FID in 2021 if it secures enough offtake Taylor has now urged the local industry to
agreements. G2 Net-Zero LNG, meanwhile, only step up its efforts to integrate CCS into their blue
proposed its LNG terminal – a cleaner redesign hydrogen projects in order to deliver on Canber-
of a previous plan – earlier this year and still has ra’s export-orientated goals.
some way to go until the facility can be built. The minister was reportedly preparing to
Overall, there are around 30 CCS projects deliver a speech to the Australian Hydrogen
under development in the US, according to the Conference this week in which he was to urge
Houston Chronicle. Almost a dozen of these are industry to work hand in hand with government
being planned along the Gulf Coast, with Louisi- in order to attract AUD70bn ($51.26bn) worth
ana increasingly keen to position itself as a CO2 of investment over the next decade.
storage hub. Similar geography exists in Texas, “Clean hydrogen has enormous potential to
which would also have extensive aquifers and be an important part of the shift to lower emis-
depleted oilfields that could potentially be used sions,” local daily the Sydney Morning Herald
for storing CO2. But Texas – the largest CO2 quoted Taylor’s planned speech as stating on
emitter in the US – has not yet shown the same November 15.
state-level enthusiasm as Louisiana to proceed His reported comments come just weeks after
with wide-scale CCS development. Santos revealed that the country was one step
closer to its first commercial CCS project. The
Australia company said on October 22 that it intended to
When the Australian government unveiled take an FID on its Moomba CCS project by the
its ambitions in late September for a hydrogen end of the year.
industry that would feed both domestic and for- The company said it had successfully pumped
eign demand, Canberra also highlighted CCS’ around 100 tonnes of CO2 into the depleted
potential in decarbonising the industry. Strzelecki gas field in the Cooper Basin as part
The process would allow the country’s exten- of the project’s final field trial. Once on stream,
sive natural gas industry to begin transitioning the 1.7mn tpy project promises to be one of the
into the production of carbon neutral, or “clean”, world’s cheapest CCS sites.
blue hydrogen. This could be sold overseas or Santos managing director and CEO Kevin Gal-
blended in domestic gas pipeline networks, with lagher said the FID hinged on the Clean Energy
some industry observers suggesting that current Regulator issuing an approved methodology for
renewable gas blends of up to 10% could rise to CCS, because carbon credits were essential to mak-
100% hydrogen by 2050. ing the project “stack up economically”.

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 46 19•November•2020