Projects

About the project

The CarbonNet Project aims to establish a commercial-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) network in Victoria, Australia.

The network will deliver carbon dioxide (CO2) captured from a range of industries based in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley, via an underground pipeline, to offshore storage sites in the Gippsland Basin.

There is potential for CarbonNet to transport and store five million tonnes of CO2 per year at the initial Pelican site, with capacity available to scale-up storage as required once the Kookaburra site comes online.

Pelican

  • Pelican is located in the Gippsland Basin (Bass Strait), approximately 8km off the Gippsland coast and 1.5km beneath the seabed.
  • The site has at least 125 million tonnes capacity at P90 @ 5 million tonnes per year.
  • Pelican will have three injection wells and one observation well.

Find out more about the Pelican Site

Pipeline specifications

  • Length of offshore pipeline (including shore crossing): 10km
  • Length of onshore pipeline: 100km
  • Diametre of pipeline: 400mm

Project timeline

Should government decide to proceed with the CarbonNet Project, the proposed operational timeline of the project is:

  • Planned Final Investment Decision (FID) Q4 2023
  • Project operational by 2027

Project progress

Since 2010 CarbonNet has completed extensive investigations which have been subject to independent review and certification, including detailed modelling of potential CO2 storage sites in Bass Strait. The project also secured legal access to offshore sites enabling further field activities to take place to confirm the viability of multiple locations.

Stage Three - Project Development and Commercial Establishment

2022

  • Preparation for the project's environmental regulatory approvals and Front End Engineering Design (FEED) phase, both of which will commence Q1 2023.

2020

  • Offshore Appraisal Well: Operations were completed in January 2020. Rock samples were taken to allow scientists to confirm the geological properties of the rock which will form the 'cap rock' and hold the stored CO2 in place.
  • Regulatory and environmental approvals achieved, and ongoing.
  • Stakeholder and community engagement taking place and ongoing.

2019

  • Request for Industry Submissions (RFIS) process commenced, closed February 2020.
  • The Geophysical and Geotechnical surveys were conducted to obtain near surface geological data to inform the positioning of the jack-up drilling rig, to drill the Offshore Appraisal Well.
  • Extensive stakeholder and community engagement ongoing

2018

  • A marine seismic survey was carried out in February 2018 to obtain additional geological information about Pelican.

2017

  • CarbonNet progresses to Stage 3: The Victorian and Australian Governments agreed to progress CarbonNet to Stage 3 – Project Development and Commercial Establishment (figure 2).

Commercial establishment

The Australian and Victorian Governments are investing $150 million in the CarbonNet Project, and there is interest from private project developers to commercialise CarbonNet.

Following a transition from the public to the private sector, CarbonNet is expected to proceed to construction and operation in the mid to late-2020’s, subject to relevant approvals and private sector investment.

Diagram showing the process of the project. It has completed the concept and feasibility stages and is currently in the project development stage.

Page last updated: 14 Dec 2022