Massive carbon capture and storage project pulled from EPBC because of reforms to federal act

Japanese energy giant Inpex is pulling its Bonaparte carbon capture and storage (CCS) from the EPBC process, citing the reforms to the federal Act last year.

The Bonaparte CCS project is owned by Inpex, Woodside and TotalEnergies, and the Japanese energy giant reportedly plans to resubmit the plans once the reforms are implemented.

The Bonaparte proposal is seeking to store up to 300 million tonnes of captured carbon dioxide from the Ichthys offshore gas field under the seabed on a site about 250km offshore from Darwin.

The plan involved building, running and decommissioning as many as six gas-injection wells along with subsea infrastructure and onshore infrastructure on the Middle Arm industrial complex.

Under the EPBC plan, site works would start in 2028 and operations in 2031.

Inpex lodged the plans with the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water’s (DCCEEW) just before the EPBC reforms were passed in November.

In December, DCCEEW suspended its referral decision to consider whether the project should be assessed under the EPBC Act, or under a relevant strategic assessment agreement with NOPSEMA, a department spokesperson told Renew Economy.

If INPEX resubmit, their proposal will be assessed under the government’s reformed environmental laws, expected to come into effect in February.

DCCEEW has a strategic assessment agreement with NOPSEMA to assess certain classes of action, and the changes to the EPBC will make a clearer distinction as to which parts of the CCS projects need to be assessed by which body.

Questions were also raised when Inpex lodged the plans about whether the project would in fact be the permanent carbon dump proposed in the documents. 

Storing carbon dioxide under the seabed has never been tried in Australia before, noted Environment Centre NT campaigner Bree Ahrens at the time.

“Carbon pollution dumping with its deafening seismic blasting, constant risks of leaks and

influx of huge ships loaded with the world’s carbon waste endangers the nature and lifestyle we love and rely on,” she said in November.

In July last year, the federal government gave Bonaparte major project status as a “renewable energy venture”, which rankled some in the clean energy industry. 

Major project status is given to complex developments that will cost more than $50 million to build, but are considered vital for national interests.

Inpex and DCCEEW have been contacted for comment. 

Price of failure not high enough

The withdrawal is another blow to the technology, which has so far failed to live up to its hype, partly because the financial incentives to use CCS are not strong enough. 

“It’s only going to work if the economics justify it and the engineering can be done,” says Climate Energy Finance director Tim Buckley. 

“I think CCS could work at the wellhead, but you need a high price.”

He points to Chevron’s $3 billion CCS system set up to capture carbon dioxide from the Gorgon gas field, offshore from Western Australia, as an example.

By the end of 2024, the country’s flagship CCS project was capturing less carbon dioxide (CO2) than ever, at just 1.6 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent. 

Buckley says the $50 billion LNG terminal is working fine, but the financial penalties of having to buy carbon credits for not making the CCS work are not enough of an incentive.

The cost of the Gorgon CCS failure was $3.2 billion in 2023. That price is a level which Meg O’Neill, then CEO of co-Bonaparte owner Woodside, said was too expensive to bother with. 

The Safeguard Mechanism changes in 2023 which require big emitters to ratchet down emission every year were a start – and Inpex CEO Takayuki Ueda complained about at the time. 

In the 12 months to 30 June 2024, the latest data available, Inpex emitted 6.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, according to corporate emissions data held by the Clean Energy Regulator (CER).

This is just under its baseline emissions cap of 7.5 million tonnes – which is higher than the  6.95 million tonne cap it was allowed in 2021. 

The plan for the Bonaparte CCS is to store 8 million tonnes of carbon under the seabed a year, before ramping up to 10 million tonnes over the course of 30 years.

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