“The McGowan Government has recently put stronger conditions on Chevron to address this problem, namely, to get the CCS working as promised,” Wood said.
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“The issue is there is no credible plan from Chevron to deliver this.”
The CO2 injection system was not ready when gas production started at Gorgon in early 2016. Then Chevron found excess water in the system mixed with carbon dioxide and formed an acid that threatened to corrode the equipment. Injection of CO2 did not begin until August 2019, three and half years after the plant started producing revenue.
The next problem was rising pressure in the layer of sandstone two kilometres below Barrow Island where the CO2 was to be stored. Wells to remove water to make room for the CO2 were clogged with sand.
A Chevron Australia spokesman said it needed to be able to remove more water from the sandstone to significantly lift the rate of CO2 injection.
Chevron has struggled to consistently bury CO2 under Barrow Island since Gorgon started production in 2016.
“We expect a number of years will be required to implement any solution due to the timeframes associated with regulatory approvals, equipment procurement, and installation,” he said.
The WA government required Chevron to obtain 2.4 million tonnes of carbon credits to offset the year’s shortfall from the 80 per cent injection target. Most of the 2.3 million tonnes purchased so far are from international markets, with the remainder Australian Carbon Credit Units.
Wood said Chevron was trying to offset its way out of its carbon storage obligations but offsets do not prevent greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere.
“There are also serious questions about the varying quality of the international offsets used by companies like Chevron,” she said
“If Chevron are not able to give the public and the regulators confidence that they will be able to get Gorgon’s pollution under control, the only reasonable alternative is to shut down production.”
Chevron operates Gorgon on behalf of its partners Shell, ExxonMobil and three Japanese utilities.
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