For My 50,000th Post: W. Australia Could Force Chevron To Pay $100 Million For Putative CCS Project

Oil and gas company Chevron could be required to pay for offsets worth more than $100m for carbon dioxide emissions released at a delayed carbon capture and storage (CCS) project in northern Western Australia, an analysis suggests. The state government last week ruled against Chevron over an emissions condition that applies to the company’s large Gorgon liquefied natural gas (LNG) development on Barrow Island in the Pilbara.

Stephen Dawson, the WA environment minister, backed a recommendation by the state Environment Protection Authority that Chevron must capture and inject underground at least 80% of carbon dioxide emissions released from a gas reservoir at the site over a five-year period starting on 18 July 2016, when it first shipped LNG from the site.

The 80% emissions burial target was a condition of the development’s state approval, but the CCS project was delayed due to technical issues. It started operating in August 2019. The state government rejected an argument by Chevron that the five-year period in which it had to bury emissions should not start until July 2018, when it was approved to expand the development.

EDIT

The Boiling Cold news site reported that more than 8m tonnes of reservoir CO2 were vented into the atmosphere in the first three years of Gorgon’s operation, before CCS began. Chevron says 1m tonnes were buried in the six months after the CCS project began operating in August. The company said in March the CCS development was fully operational, and would capture up to 4m tonnes a year. It suggests, under a best-case scenario, about 40% of reservoir CO2 over the five years would be buried. That could leave about 7m tonnes needing to be offset to reach the 80% target. Richie Merzian, from the Australia Institute think tank, said the company could be liable for more than 10m tonnes of unapproved emissions if not all reservoir CO2 was captured, equivalent to the annual emissions from Australia’s domestic airline industry.

EDIT

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jun/04/chevron-could-be-forced-to-pay-100m-for-failure-to-capture-carbon-emissions