CCS Projects Working to Overcome Early Challenges

Carbon Capture projects are increasingly being touted as a key piece of the decarbonization puzzle. Demand for fossil fuels shows no sign of shrinking, but at the same time countries are adopting increasingly ambitious emissions reduction targets in the longer term as the energy transition accelerates.

A growing number of oil and gas industry players is proposing to use carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) to address this challenge, with plans to potentially deploy carbon capture alongside upstream operations, gas liquefaction terminals and downstream facilities, among others. A handful of CCS projects are already in operation and a rapidly growing number is in the early stages of development. However, operational challenges at certain existing CCS projects have led to concerns over how well a larger CCS industry will perform. As global CCS capacity rises, scrutiny of the projects’ performance can be expected to intensify.

One CCS project in particular that has found itself in the spotlight over underperformance is the facility at the Chevron-led Gorgon LNG project in Australia. Chevron did not reply to Hart Energy’s inquiries about the project, but recently confirmed to Reuters that Gorgon CCS was still only operating at around half its capacity, with no timeframe for meeting its carbon capture targets.