Chevron Corp.’s flagship carbon capture and storage project. in Australia faces years of work to reach its full capacity, underscoring the challenge of a technology seen as necessary to help the world meet climate goals.
The Gorgon CCS project, one of the largest of its kind in the world, needs investment to increase performance and will be idled at about a third of its planned capacity until it is completed, according to David Fallon, CEO of Chevron Australia’s energy transition.
“We’re not going to hide from the fact that it’s not perfect,” Fallon said in an interview on the sidelines of an Adelaide conference on Wednesday. “But it still safely stores a significant amount of CO2 each year.”
Gorgon is designed to capture 4 million tonnes of CO2 a year from a Chevron-led liquefied natural gas plant on Barrow Island and store it in an undersea reservoir. Since its launch in 2019, the project has been plagued with difficulties and is currently operating at a storage rate of around 1.6 million tonnes of CO2 per year.
Oil and gas producers, along with other polluting industries, are stepping up global plans to roll out carbon capture projects, both to curb their own climate impact and to develop businesses that will manage emissions generated by third parties. The total number of projects proposed or in operation increased by 44% by 2022 to about 196, according to the Global CCS Institute, an industry group.
Critics of carbon capture have cited Gorgon as evidence that the technology is too expensive and technically difficult to rely on as a climate change mitigation tool. However, organizations including the International Energy Agency insist that development of the sector is necessary to decarbonise heavy industry and ensure climate targets are met.
Unlike many carbon capture projects that use depleted oil or gas wells to store CO2, Gorgon uses a saline aquifer that never held fossil fuels and has run into problems with water pressure. Solutions being reviewed by project teams include proposals to remove the water and transfer it to another nearby reservoir, allowing CO2 to be injected at a higher rate.
An investment decision on that project is expected this year, and completion of the work will likely take years, rather than months, Fallon said. “This will allow us to increase CO2 injection rates again,” he said.
Under an agreement with the Western Australian government, Chevron must buy about 2.3 million tonnes of carbon offsets each year to offset the shortfall in its capture capacity.
