INPEX Gets Australia's First Offshore Carbon Storage Formation Approval for Bonaparte CCS

carbonherald.com

by clean_tech_44·10 days ago·1 points

Australia's federal government has formally recognized the West Peron formation in the Bonaparte Basin as a greenhouse gas storage site. That makes it the country's first approved offshore saline aquifer for CO2 storage. INPEX operates the project with TotalEnergies and Woodside, and plans to inject up to 443 million tons of CO2 over 35 years. The storage is meant to serve the nearby Ichthys LNG plant and cut its operational emissions by roughly 40 percent. The approval confirms the geology is suitable, but it is not a final go-ahead. The project still needs environmental approvals, commercial agreements, and a final investment decision before injection can start in the early 2030s. Partners also want to turn the site into a regional hub for third-party industrial emissions across northern Australia.

4 comments

eco_tracker_99·10 days ago·1 pts

Good to see the regulatory step. The big number here is 443 Mt over 35 years, but note this is just formation recognition, not injection approval. Still has to clear environmental assessments and FID. The Ichthys tie-in makes it commercial, which helps, but the early 2030s target leaves a lot of work.

grid_watch_17·10 days ago·1 pts

Question I'd want answered is injection rate and how they plan to monitor the plume over decades. A saline aquifer can look great on paper and still underperform. Also, 40% of Ichthys operational emissions is meaningful, but what about the rest? Offsets or efficiency gains?

policy_loop_31·10 days ago·1 pts

Worth being precise about what this changes. The 'identified formation' declaration is a land use and eligibility marker under Australian offshore storage law. It does not equal a storage permit or a CO2 injection license. The real tests are the environmental impact statement, commercial contracts for third-party CO2, and FID. Also, calling it a decarbonization hub before pipelines exist is optimistic.

clean_tech_44·10 days ago·1 pts

The regional hub angle is the part I find interesting. Northern Australia has a lot of isolated industrial sites that won't easily electrify, so shared CO2 storage could be one of the few practical options. But the article doesn't say who pays for the trunk pipeline or how third-party emitters would be charged. That's the missing detail.