Chevron Corp's Gorgon carbon capture and storage (CCS) project in Australia is working at only half its capacity nearly three years after starting up and the company has no timeframe for delivering on targets it has so far failed to meet, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.
The world's largest CCS project, which started up three years late, is being closely watched by the gas industry globally as carbon capture and storage is seen as essential for producers to meet net zero emissions targets by 2050.
Gorgon CCS had originally been slated to be fully operational by last year when the project faced its first five-year rolling assessment. Instead, it was forced to buy carbon credits for falling short of goals for burying emissions from the Gorgon LNG plant. The project was designed to bury 4 MMtons of CO2 annually but only managed 2.1 MMtons last year.
Judd said the company would continue to work with the Western Australian government to offer offsets to make up for any shortfall assessed each year. He did not say how much Chevron had spent on the 5 MM GHG offsets surrendered on behalf of the Gorgon partners, which include fellow majors Exxon Mobil Corp and Shell.
Australian Carbon Credit Units soared to a high of A$57 a ton in January when Chevron was buying offsets. At those prices, the offsets would cost more than AD250 MM but not all the offsets were bought on the Australian market.
Despite the challenges faced by the AD3 B (USD2 B) project off the coast of Western Australia, Chevron is looking for other CCS opportunities in Australia and elsewhere. In Southeast Asia alone BP plc, Indonesia's Pertamina and Malaysia's Petronas are working on CCS plans.
As per MRC, Chevron and ExxonMobil have signed separate agreements with state energy company PT Pertamina to explore lower carbon business opportunities in Indonesia. Chevron signed an MoU through its subsidiary, Chevron New Ventures Pte. Ltd, and is looking at potential businesses in new geothermal technology, carbon offsets through nature-based solutions, carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS), Pertamina said.
We remind that Chevron Phillips Chemical, a joint venture of Phillips 66 and Chevron, will make a final investment decision on a new cracker in far southeast Texas in 2022, followed by an FID in 2023 on an USD8 billion joint venture petrochemical complex along the US Gulf Coast in 2023.
mrchub.com