Pioneering submission lodged for Cliff Head Joint Venture

A joint venture between Pilot Energy and partner Triangle Energy has made history as the first in Australia to lodge a submission to seek regulatory approvals for an offshore carbon capture project.

The Cliff Head Joint Venture (CHJV) announced that there has been material progress on the Cliff Head CCS Project, after the successful lodgement of its application to the National Offshore Petroleum Titles Authority (NOPTA) for a Declaration of an identified Greenhouse Gas storage formation.

The CHJV’s application is one of the first applications to be made under the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006 (OPGGS Act) and the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage (Greenhouse Gas Injection and Storage) Regulations 2011 (the Regulations). As such, a key principle underpinning this technical work was to present a conservative assessment of the CO² storage potential across the tenement area.

The Declaration is the initial regulatory approval for an offshore CCS project and facilitates the CHJV progressing to apply for a CO² injection licence.

The Cliff Head CCS Project, located near Geraldton in Western Australia’s midwest region, is a Global Top 10 CO² Injection Capacity Project, which at full capacity would be injecting up to 1.1Mtpa of CO² into offshore reservoirs.

CHJV also announced that CO2Tech (CHJV CO² storage subsurface adviser) has revised the contingent storage resource estimate, resulting in a 50 per cent increase in the CHJV 2C contingent CO² storage resource for the WA-31-L tenement area from 6.4 million tonnes to 9.7 million tonnes (100 per cent basis). 

This increased storage resource is sufficient to facilitate CO² injection over approximately 15 years at a rate of 665,000 tonnes per annum.

Cliff Head CO² Storage Resource Upgrade

Over the past six months, the CHJV technical teams, along with CO2Tech, have undertaken a full technical assessment of the CO² storage potential across the WA-31-L tenement area. This work stream expanded key technical models to cover the entire WA-31-L and adjacent area (expanding into Pilot’s 100 per cent held WA-481-P exploration licence).

The expanded technical data set has supported the CHJV’s submission to NOPTA for the Declaration of an identified greenhouse gas storage formation and has resulted in a 50 per cent increase in the CCS Project 2C contingent resources to 9.7 million tonnes (prepared in accordance with the SPE SRMS), which would enable initial CO² injection of 665,000tpa over 15 years.

The upgraded resource also involves a revised approach to the CCS development with a new CO² injection well to be drilled downdip from the field instead of converting five existing wells, with the existing wells being retained for pressure maintenance and monitoring. 

The capital cost of the simplified development plan is under review however, it is expected to fall within the previous guidance of $110 million for 665,000 tonnes per annum injection capacity with up to a further $60 million to expand injection capacity to 1.1 million tonnes per annum.

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