Carbon Loop #009
Northern Lights; Bayu-Undan; An opportunity for Australia to be courageous
Just sneaking it in before the end of the month… again
A newsletter by the CCUSNA dedicated to highlighting the Australian carbon capture, utilisation and storage industry.
⛴️ From Rotterdam to Sluiskil: WA Checks Out Northern Lights ..
Last week, a Western Australian delegation travelled to the World Hydrogen Summit in Rotterdam and followed it by donning very cool smocks and travelling to Yara’s Sluiskil Ammonia Plant in the Netherlands — a site that’s fast becoming one of the world’s most interesting case studies in cross-border carbon management.
The facility already captures CO₂ for use in beer, soda, and tomatoes (in that order, I assume), and is now being upgraded to liquefy and export CO₂ to the Northern Lights Project, where it will be stored under the Norwegian seabed.
Among the visitors were WA Minister for Energy and Decarbonisation Amber-Jade Sanderson, representatives from Austrade, DFAT, academia, industry, and the Yara Pilbara team. The visit underlined how Yara’s European CCS expertise is shaping the Pilbara’s potential to capture over 1 million tonnes of CO₂ per year.
Please forgive the shameless self-promotion, but stories like these are a real win for the industry overall. It’s a reminder that while CCS may have its critics, projects like Sluiskil show what’s possible when government, industry, and tomato growers get serious.
🧩 Decommissioning Delayed (But Not Denied): The CCS Economics Puzzle ..
Boiling Cold recently reported on Santos’ decision to shut down the Bayu-Undan gas project, with attention now turning to its possible second life as a CCS site.
Repurposing the field could offset the project’s massive decommissioning bill — but it’s not as easy as flipping a switch. Permits, monitoring plans, community engagement, and (let’s be honest) years of paperwork all stand between concept and carbon storage.
It’s a reminder that CCS project economics aren’t just about capture rates and carbon prices — they’re also about timing, legacy infrastructure, and regulatory choreography. Bayu-Undan could become a storage asset — or a stranded liability.
Santos to shut Bayu-Undan Gas Project: next steps are crucial
🗳️ Two Mandates and a Carbon Price? ..
After strong election wins at both the federal and WA state level, Labor now has political space to pursue bolder reform — and The Superpower Institute are calling for one thing in particular: a carbon price.
Not just for climate reasons — but as a productivity tool, investment signal, and industrial policy anchor. For CCS developers, this is music to our ears. A credible, durable carbon price is the basis for every project’s opportunity-cost and underpins the investment case for most capital allocators. It could be the difference between another ‘wait and see’ decision and an actual project in the dirt.
After the 2025 election: Energy transition and restoration of Australian growth
and
Labor can now seize the opportunity to focus on productivity
🌎 Slow Burn, Big Shift: CCUS Projects Gaining Traction ..
The IEA has published a global update showing that CCUS projects are gradually but steadily progressing — from FIDs and permit wins to infrastructure construction and offtake deals.
It’s not a surge — more a slow progressive shift. A bit like climate change. But personally, I much prefer slow and steady over flashy hype. In my view, this is how decarbonisation happens.
For Australia, the message is clear: CCS is not niche. It’s an emerging industrial norm and the countries leaning in now are the ones that will shape the global carbon management economy.
CCUS projects around the world are reaching new milestones
✈️ SAF Mandates & Subsea Diplomacy: UK Turns Up the Clean Energy Dial ..
The UK has passed legislation requiring 10% of jet fuel to be sustainable by 2030, rising to 22% by 2040 — giving the local SAF industry the demand certainty it needs to scale.
At the same time, the UK and Norway have signed a Clean Energy Partnership, with carbon capture, hydrogen, and CO₂ shipping front and centre. The agreement signals deeper alignment on infrastructure, certification, and storage cooperation.
For Australia, again, a bit like the last link, to me this shows that the first movers have a chance to set the table in a way that suits them. Low-carbon mandates and infrastructure planning allow countries to attract industries to underpin decarbonised economic growth for decades to come.
Further,
CCUS industries and low-carbon products are tradeable sectors now, not just science projects
Australia has the geology, the people, and the industrial base — but if we want in, we’ll need to build the policy frameworks to match our circumstances quickly
One carbon-intensive product with relevance to Australia: explosives in the mining industry. Would our newly elected governments, with now stronger political mandates, be brave enough to introduce a low-carbon mandate to the industry best placed to afford one?
Boost for British green aviation fuel production to support jobs and lift off emerging industry
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UK and Norway accelerate clean energy opportunities
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— Bennett Green