Santos forging ahead with CCS in the Outback - Upstream Online
Santos forging ahead with CCS in the Outback | Upstream Online
Santos’ US$165 million Moomba carbon capture and storage (CCS) project in the Cooper Basin in the South Australia Outback has passed the 60% completion mark and is on track for first injection next year.
The project involves the capture of about 1.7 million tonnes per annum of carbon dioxide from the Moomba gas plant, which has been handling production from the Australian operator’s nearby onshore fields for decades.
The CO2 will then be dehydrated to avoid corrosion and compressed for transport via an underground 54-kilometre, 10-inch diameter pipeline to the storage sites — depleted reservoirs at the Marabooka and Strzelecki gas fields.
Related Knowledge Center: ENERGY BASICS: nuclear
Nuclear energy provides almost 20 percent of the U.S. electricity supply. Advocates have called for an expanded role for nuclear as an emissions-free fuel source. But the economics of building new reactors are daunting. In addition, lingering safety concerns are an institutionalized part of the calculation of nuclear regulation, and highly radioactive nuclear waste remains a can that public officials have been inclined to kick down the road. The Energy Information Administration projects a sharp decline in nuclear power generation over the next decade, as new nuclear plants — two are planned — are more than offset by anticipated retirements of several operating reactors.