Page 6 - GLNG Week 11 2022

GLNG COMMENTARY GLNG

Australia accelerates CCS plans

Carbon capture and storage initiatives are picking up pace in Australia, with the

state government of Western Australia saying it would draft a bill covering use of

the technology

ENERGY CARBON capture and storage (CCS) and car- ongoing, but in the meantime, decarbonisation
TRANSITION bon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) initiatives continue and for the oil and gas indus-
initiatives are picking up pace in Australia as try, CCS is at the forefront of such initiatives.
WHAT: decarbonisation increasingly becomes a prior-
Western Australia will ity for countries and companies alike. Nowhere Australian momentum
draft a bill covering is this trend more prominent than in the oil and In Australia, CCS development is being
carbon capture and gas industry – a significant contributor to green- advanced on both the federal and state levels.
storage. house gas (GHG) emissions, which is now trying The federal Australian Department of Industry,
to balance decarbonisation goals with continu- Science, Energy and Resources describes CCS as
WHY: ing to meet growing energy demand. a “priority low-emissions technology” under the
The move comes as Indeed, the situation has been further com- country’s Technology Investment Roadmap.
CCS initiatives gain plicated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which According to the department, Canberra is
momentum in the country. is already disrupting global energy flows as a investing more than AUD300mn ($219mn) in
small number of countries have banned Rus- CCUS over a 10-year period. The investments
WHAT NEXT: sian energy imports. Australia is among those will be directed into “enabling infrastructure”
Various oil and gas to announce a ban on Russian energy imports for large-scale deployment of CCUS. The gov-
companies are also – along with the US and UK – though Can- ernment has set a “stretch goal” of bringing the
pushing ahead with their berra has said the ban would only take effect costs of carbon dioxide (CO2) compression,
CCS projects. after cargoes that have already been paid for are transport and storage down to below AUD20
delivered. Meanwhile, the European Union has ($15) per tonne.
announced an unprecedented move to reduce Against this backdrop, regional CCS initia-
Russian gas imports by two-thirds within a year. tives are now being advanced as well. The gov-
These developments contributed to oil prices ernment of Western Australia said on March
hitting new multi-year highs in recent days 9 that it would draft a bill to provide the state’s
before dropping back somewhat, with gas prices “resources sector with further investment
following the same trajectory. Debate over the and regulatory certainty as it transitions to a
implications of this for the energy transition is low-carbon future”.

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