This week, Lock the Gate shared documents obtained via a Freedom of Information (FOI) request that showed Santos is considering carbon capture and storage to offset the Narrabri Gas Project.
What is the Narrabri Gas Project?
The Narrabri Gas Project is a significant natural gas development proposed and operated by Santos, one of Australia’s largest domestic gas producers. It was a part of the Morrison government’s Gas Led Recovery’ and was approved by the NSW Independent Planning Commission in September 2020. The project is located near Narrabri in northwest New South Wales and will have an operational area of 950 square kilometres.
What is carbon capture & storage?
Carbon capture and storage (commonly referred to as CCS) is a technology designed to reduce carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from industrial processes, such as coal seam gas mining, to sequester or remove carbon, to reduce the carbon emissions of a project.
The process involves three main steps:
- Capturing CO₂ from sources like power plants or industrial facilities.
- Transporting the captured CO₂, usually via pipelines, to a suitable storage site.
- Storing the CO₂ deep underground in geological formations such as depleted oil and gas fields or saline aquifers, where it is intended to remain permanently isolated from the atmosphere
Carbon Capture and Storage is becoming the magic pill for fossil fuel giants such as Santos, who need to drastically reduce their carbon in line with the Federal Government’s Safeguard Mechanism or their own company’s targets. For example, Santos has an emissions reduction target of net zero by 2040.
Australia’s largest operating, commercial-scale CCS project is the Gorgon project on Barrow Island in Western Australia, which has faced continued issues and has not been nearly as effective as it hoped, despite still being an incredibly costly process. Essentially, CCS has never worked at scale, and certainly not at a scale required to completely offset the 127 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions that the Narrabri Gas Project is expected to create.
So what’s happening in the Pilliga?
In order for the Narrabri Gas Project to go ahead, Santos may require the approval and construction of a carbon capture and storage project near Moree, which is several hours north of Narrabri, for the project to get the green light. Moree sits over the Great Artesian Basin, an incredibly vast but delicate system that provides communities in remote NSW and QLD with reliable, potable water. Pumping carbon underground could pose a huge risk to the wellbeing of the GAB and put it at risk.
“It’s remarkable that, more than a decade after the NGP was first proposed, Santos has only recently realised it needs to do something about the significant emissions it would produce. The reality is, however, that carbon capture and storage projects are no solution to abating emissions from new fossil fuel projects – the only way to truly do that is to not build new gas projects in the first place”, said Carmel Flint, Lock the Gate Alliance National Coordinator.
What’s next?
Whilst Santos decide if and how they approach this CCS project, there are still a lot of other puzzle pieces that need to fall into place for the Narrabri Gas Project to get the green light.
Santos is currently –
- Waiting on the final decision for its Narrabri Lateral Pipeline (gasfield to Narrabri), its Hunter Gas Pipeline (QLD border to Newcastle) and the Hunter Lateral Pipeline (HGP to existing pipeline network).
- In the process of reaching access agreements with up to 174 landholders along its Hunter Gas Pipeline route
- Waiting for a decision by the Native Title Tribunal after Gomeroi Traditional Owners successfully appealed the tribunal’s earlier decision to approve the project in the Federal Court, on the grounds that the NTT should have taken climate impacts into consideration when considering whether it was in the public interest. A decision is expected next week
Stand in solidarity with Gomeroi
As mentioned last week, this Tuesday morning there is a gathering at the NSW Law Courts (Queens Square) this Tuesday 6th May (not April, like I said multiple times last week!) ahead of the Native Title Tribunal’s decision later next week.
For more information and to RSVP, find the full event details here.