The Australian energy company Santos has announced the commissioning of its 1.7 MtCO2/year Moomba carbon capture and storage (CCS) project, located in the Cooper Basin, South Australia. Santos said the Australian carbon credit unit (ACCU)-generating project is running at full injection rates with all five wells online. Santos expects to inject approximately 250 kt (gross) of CO2 in 2024.
The CCS project is Australia's second largest by nameplate capacity after Chevron's 4 MtCO2/year Gorgon CCS on Barrow Island. In December 2023, Santos had announced a new agreement with two Japanese energy companies (JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration Corporation and ENEOS Corporation) to collaborate on CCS and expand the Moomba project. The deal seeks to identify and define investment opportunities covering the potential importation of up to 5 MtCO2/year by 2030, 10 MtCO2/year by 2035 and 20 MtCO2/year by 2040 from Japan to the Moomba CCS project.