Gorgon CO2 Injection Project

Facts:

As part of the Gorgon LNG Project, Chevron Australia (operator), Shell and Exxon are planning a sub-project for CO2 sequestration. The Gorgon gas field is one of the world’s premier hydrocarbon resources and situated 130 km off the northwest coast of Western Australia.

Storage:

The CO2 sequestration project is world’s largest CO2 capture and storage project with a potential to capture 3.3 million ton CO2 annually from separation of CO2 from the natural gas.

The project is a commercial-scale demonstration project involving three components:
- Capture of CO2 from reservoir natural gas; compressing, drying and liquefying the CO2 and transportation by pipeline to the injection site.
- Injecting the CO2 2.3 km underground into the Dupuy saline aquifer formation under the Barrow Island.
- Long-term monitoring of the stored CO2 to ensure its safety. The project aims to store a total of 125 million ton of CO2 over its 40 years lifetime.

Chevron is operator of the Project with a 50% interest, with ExxonMobil and Shell each holding 25%.

The overall Gorgon LNG project costs are in the order of A$ 15-20 billion, of which the storage component is in the order of A$ 1 billion. The Australian Government announced in Nov. 2006354 that it provides A$ 60 million from the Low Emissions Technology Demonstration Fund to support the sequestration project.

The overall project is expected to commence late 2009, and CO2 reinjection is expected to start in 2012-13. Data wells have been drilled and a major study of the subsurface is underway.