Carbon Loop #011
LCLFs, Consultations, and Soapboxes ..
The Carbon Loop #011
A newsletter by the CCUSNA dedicated to highlighting the Australian carbon capture, utilisation and storage industry.
🧣 CCUSNA Goes East ..
Three of us from the CCUSNA Committee packed our scarves (and light emotional baggage) and headed to Melbourne earlier this month for the Carbon Capture APAC Summit. We appeared on more than one panel (read: two) and did our best to champion the CCUS cause without tipping over into cringe.
Highlight of the event, at least for me, was Brett Woods, CEO of Beach Energy, who used a solid chunk of his time to praise Gorgon — a competing CCS project. He could’ve easily spent the time spotlighting Moomba, which has been quietly kicking goals since start-up. Instead, he chose to celebrate Gorgon’s achievements: over 10 million tonnes of CO₂ injected, arguably more environmental impact than any other decarbonisation project in the country (citation needed).
And I love to see it. My personal opinions to follow.
We’ve got to get past the classic Australian tall-poppy-syndrome and give credit where it’s due. Gorgon helped stand up a new industry, under intense scrutiny, with no local playbook. That’s not what failure looks like.
I suspect their team might do some things differently with the benefit of hindsight. That’s what happens when you live in the real world. The only projects that remain perfect are the ones that never leave the slide deck.
Sometimes that old saying: shoot for the moon, and even if you miss you’ll land among the stars doesn’t hold in Australia.
Here it can be more like: reach for the moon, and if you miss, someone will come out of the woodwork to ask how much your rocket cost and why you didn’t just build a big battery instead.
We need to be better than that. Decarbonising heavy industry isn’t going to happen without serious collaboration — across companies, across projects, across acronyms. Brett’s approach was generous, grounded, and exactly the kind of leadership we need more of if we’re going to save the planet from, well… ourselves.
Well played, Mr Woods.
🇦🇺 CEFC’s playbook for becoming a low-carbon liquid fuel powerhouse ..
The Clean Energy Finance Corporation has released Refined Ambitions, a roadmap for Australia’s role in low-carbon liquid fuels like e-fuels, methanol, and ammonia. It highlights our comparative advantages and sets out what it’ll take to compete globally.
Many of these LCLFs require a thriving carbon management industry to generate the necessary feedstocks (i.e. CO₂). And given that Australia imports over 90% of its liquid fuels (and I’m only saying “over 90%” because I don’t have the guts to say it's more like 99%), a push into homegrown, low-carbon fuels doesn’t just support CCS — it’s also a national resilience play.
🇦🇺 Major Project Status for Bonaparte ..
The Federal Government has granted Major Project Status to the Bonaparte CCS Assessment project — a joint venture between INPEX, TotalEnergies and Woodside. The project is investigating the potential to store up to 10 million tonnes of CO₂ per year in a subsea reservoir in the Bonaparte Basin, off the coast of northern Australia.
It’s a significant signal for large-scale CCS, especially in supporting the decarbonisation of LNG and industrial operations in the Top End. Major Project Status should help the JV navigate Commonwealth regulatory processes more efficiently — always handy when you're dealing with any new industry, offshore geology and three major companies.
🚢 BHP books two ammonia-fuelled bulkers — and it’s good news for CCS ..
BHP has locked in contracts for two ammonia dual-fuelled bulk carriers, to be built in Japan and delivered in 2026. They’ll be hauling iron ore between Australia and Asia — and choo-choo-choosing ammonia to power the journey.
Yes, I know that’s a train reference. No, I don’t understand how big machines work. Let’s move on.
So why should the CCUS crowd care? Well, you may have heard of BHP’s modest mining operation in the Pilbara. If their ships start running on low-carbon ammonia, that’s a big, bankable demand signal and it could help underwrite the CCS-enabled low-carbon ammonia projects up in the region.
In short: these big ships need low-carbon fuel → low-carbon ammonia can be that low-carbon fuel → currently, low-carbon ammonia needs CCS.
Everyone wins (except maybe grey bunker fuel — but hey, they had a good run).
🇦🇺 Three consultations you might’ve missed ..
It’s been a busy month for regulatory and policy exposure drafts. In case you’re not already across them:
🟢 GO Scheme exposure drafts (Commonwealth) — legislative instruments to support Australia’s Guarantee of Origin Scheme are open for comment. It’s mainly focused on renewable hydrogen and the GO ‘method’ for carbon capture is still to come.
🔗 Consultation⚖️ RMA Regulations Remake (Commonwealth) — proposed changes to the Renewable Energy (Methodology and Assessment) Regulations 2021 are up for review. Some stuff there on GHG Injection licenses but mostly about other stuff as far as I can see.
🔗 Consultation page⛏️ WA DMIRS Guidelines (WA) — DMPE (previously DEMIRS) is consulting on draft guidance for CCS site closure and liability transfer. Hugely relevant to those in the WA CCUS industry, including setting out processes and requirements for wrapping up CCS reservoirs.
🔗 Consultation page
🔗 Draft guideline (PDF)
🧪 MRIWA wants your weirdest (decarbonisation-adjacent) ideas ..
The Minerals Research Institute of WA has dropped a new Research Priority Plan Discussion Paper, asking where it should throw its funding weight next. Stuff like energy transition minerals, low-emissions processing, and decarbonising the minerals sector — including potential for carbon capture, utilisation and storage.
CCUS gets a specific mention, along with shared infrastructure and tech development. So if you’ve been itching to pitch your niche CO₂ tech (“it’s like DAC but for drill rigs!”), this is your moment. And if you don’t have something to pitch, well… it’s open season for zany ideas. We’re not saying submit a proposal about sequestering CO₂ in Vegemite jars, but we’re also not not saying that.
🔗 Read the paper (PDF)
📅 Submissions close: 30 August 2025
🇯🇵 MHI to design Japan’s largest CO₂ capture plant — and still eyeing Australia ..
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries will design Japan’s largest carbon capture plant at a biomass-fired power station. It’s expected to capture about 180 ktpa using MHI’s Advanced KM CDR Process, co-developed with Kansai Electric.
It’s another move in MHI’s expanding global CCS portfolio. And MHI has been increasing its Australian footprint of late, having opened a regional office in Perth and speaking at the recent APAC CCS Summit.
🌏 International CCS round-up ..
🇳🇴🇫🇷 France–Norway CO₂ deal: France has signed a cross-border CO₂ storage deal with Norway, laying the groundwork for a pan-European CCS market.
🔗 Read more🇬🇧 UK finally commits to CCS: After years of stop-start support, the UK Government has firmed up its CCS strategy — but not without backlash.
🔗 Read more🇬🇧 Post-Brexit reboot: Separate analysis from Euractiv explores how post-Brexit policy freedom is being used to accelerate CCS project approvals.
🔗 Read more🇺🇸 Big, Beautiful 45Q: The U.S. has passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, preserving and expanding the 45Q tax credit — a cornerstone of American CCS incentives.
🔗 Read more🇳🇴 Trudvang milestone: The Vår Energi-operated Trudvang CCS project has reached a key development milestone.
🔗 Read more🇺🇸 Blue Point blue hydrogen: Linde will supply nitrogen to the massive Blue Point blue H₂ project in the US Gulf Coast.
🔗 Read more🎥 Carbon capture in 3 minutes: A BBC explainer video that’s surprisingly digestible and just informative enough to share with a confused uncle.
🔗 Watch the video
🔗 Read the article
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* An earlier version of this issue incorrectly referred to LGIRS and not DMPE - thanks to one of our sharp readers for pointing this out.