At Santos’ Annual General Meeting (AGM) last week, Mr Gallagher spoke about the company’s proposed Moomba CCS project that will capture CO2 from the Moomba plant in South Australia and permanently store it in geological formations of the Cooper Basin.
The project has entered the front-end engineering and design (FEED) phase and Santos has entered into a non-binding agreement with BP which could see the project receive a $20 million investment.
“We estimate the cost of abatement at less than $30 per t and our aim is to drive these costs lower with scale and experience,” said Mr Gallagher at the AGM.
“I believe carbon capture and storage is an exciting opportunity for Santos now and into the future, with the potential to create a new wealth-generating industry for Australia, breathe new life into existing industries such as cement and steel, and underpin the development of new energies such as hydrogen.
“Just as private investment in renewable energy deployment was accelerated through public policy and funding over the last two decades, we now need to focus on accelerating CCS in similar ways.”
Mr Gallagher also said a revenue stream, such as from Australian Carbon Credit Units, would be critical for Moomba CCS.
Santos was one of a number of large oil and gas operators forced to cut staff in the last few weeks in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Mr Gallagher said the company has now established a taskforce to deal with the situation.
“Right now I am focused on the health, safety and wellbeing of Santos people and their families and on keeping production flowing,” he said.
“This will mean that we can keep the lights on for the country and continue to power other essential services like hospitals, schools, Australian manufacturers, and the supermarkets our communities rely on.”
For more information visit the Santos website.
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