Oil and gas supermajor Chevron says that Australia has great potential to become a CO2 sink for the carbon emitted by other countries.
To look deeper into the subject, the fossil fuels giant has announced its plans to study a project to permanently store CO2 from Singapore deep underground in Australia.
The project will be co-led by Japanese company Mitsui O.S.K Lines (MOL) and will involve shipping liquefied carbon dioxide from Singapore to different storage sites in offshore Australia before the end of the decade.
For now, it is said that most of the transported emissions are to be from the Singapore oil refinery that is co-owned by Chevron to determine the feasibility of permanently storing away CO2 in three carbon storage acreage blocks.
These blocks were awarded to Chevron by the Australian government only weeks prior to the announcement.
Chris Powers, global vice-president of carbon capture and storage (CCS) at Chevron, acknowledged the technical difficulties that would need to be overcome for the project to take place.
Relevant: Chevron Australia Buys Stakes In Three Offshore Carbon Capture Projects
Nevertheless, Powers said the project would likely provide an excellent economic opportunity for the country, as the world is in desperate need to slash its emissions.
“Australia’s favorable geology could really be a lucrative opportunity to import emissions from these countries that are really not blessed with the same geology that Australians are blessed with,” he said.
Particularly Korea, Singapore and Japan are among the nations that do not have the necessary geology for the safe injection of CO2, hence they are looking for carbon storage sites elsewhere.
Read more: Japan Energy Giants Invest $750M In Carbon Capture In Australia
