CO2CRC Otway Carbon Storage Project

In rural Victoria, a carbon storage demonstration that the whole world is watching

The CO2CRC (the Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technologies) Otway Project is Australia’s most advanced carbon dioxide storage project. Launched in April 2008, the project involves the extraction, compression and transport and storage of 100,000 tonnes of naturally occurring CO₂. The CO₂ is being stored in a depleted natural gas reservoir two kilometres below the earth’s surface.

A key project feature is its world-leading carbon dioxide monitoring program. Designed, developed and implemented by CO2CRC researchers from Australia, New Zealand, the USA and Canada, this comprehensive monitoring program will contribute to the development of new monitoring technologies for safe CO₂ storage.

In April 2009, CO2CRC Chief Executive Dr Peter Cook reported an important project milestone. “The CO2CRC Otway Project has safely and securely stored 50,000 tonnes of CO₂ in south-western Victoria, twelve months since injection began. More importantly, sampling of deep underground fluid and gas, as well as soil, groundwater and atmospheric monitoring, are showing that the CO₂ and the rocks in which it is stored are behaving as researchers have predicted,” he said.

The promising results have opened the door for researchers to expand the project into new and important areas, and gain a better understanding of carbon storage.

The project is funded by the members of the CO2CRC Pilot Project Ltd, the Australian Commonwealth and Victorian governments, the Australian Coal Association and other partners.

Learn how carbon storage works.