INPEX-led trio awarded carbon capture assessment permit offshore northwest Australia

Offshore staff

TOKYO, Japan – INPEX, TotalEnergies and Woodside Energy have secured a greenhouse-gas storage assessment permit (G-7-AP) offshore northwest Australia, under their Bonaparte CCS Assessment joint venture.

The block, awarded under Australia’s 2021 Offshore Greenhouse Gas Storage Acreage Release, is in 30 m to 75 m of water in the Bonaparte Basin off the northwestern coast of the Northern Territory. According to INPEX, the area is thought to hold strong potential for subsurface storage of captured CO₂.

INPEX will operate the block with a 53% interest, pursuing evaluation and appraisal work with its two partners from next year onward.

The company added that its Ichthys LNG development (in which TotalEnergies is also a partner) would be a natural user of this CCS solution, with an opportunity to prove up a large-scale carbon storage site for the Darwin-based, carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) hub proposed by the Northern Territory Government.

Potentially this could become one of the world’s largest CCS projects, the company added.

08.24.2022