In February 2012, CarbonNet was announced as the second national CCS flagship. In Victoria, a substantial history of geological characterisation has occurred in the Gippsland Basin owing to conventional oil and gas development offshore, brown coal development and significant groundwater resource utilisation on-shore. Previous regional characterisation of storage capacity has described the off-shore commercial storage potential in the Gippsland Basin as arguably the best in Australia.
CarbonNet is investigating the potential for CCS in Gippsland as the region is widely recognised as a world-class location offering significant potential for CCS. The nearby Latrobe Valley is home to power stations responsible for generating more than 90 per cent of the state’s electricity. The adjacent offshore Gippsland Basin has been found to have the highest technical ranking of 25 major basins across Australia and the largest storage potential of any east coast basin (2009 National Carbon Task Force).
The project is exploring the potential to capture and store 1-5 million tonnes of CO2, per year, with the possibility of scaling up. Successful implementation of this project could be the starting point for an expanding commercial scale carbon transportation and storage system, enabling new industries and a significant reduction in carbon emissions in Victoria.
CO2 storage research – Gippsland Basin
This matrix ranks the research project areas that address the potential priority of injectivity, capacity, public acceptance and containment issues against the maturity of the project development from Near Term to Long Term. The matrix highlights the research areas that have been addressed or are under current investigation.
