The South East Australia Carbon Capture Hub

ExxonMobil established its Low Carbon Solutions business to commercialise the company’s extensive lower-emission portfolio with the objective to create long-term shareholder value and support global emission-reduction efforts. 

Low Carbon Solutions is focused on commercialising lower-emission business opportunities in carbon capture and storage, hydrogen and lower-emission fuels, by leveraging the skills, knowledge and scale of ExxonMobil. 

Since 2022 we have been progressing the South East Australia Carbon Capture and Storage project (SEA CCS) to determine the potential for CCS in the broader Gippsland Basin and we have now completed front-end engineering and design work to evaluate the suitability of the Bream field is a suitable storage location for CO₂.

Carbon Capture and Storage

Carbon capture and storage is the process of capturing CO₂ emissions from industrial activity or power plants at the source and injecting it into deep underground geologic formations for safe, secure and permanent storage.  

It is among the few proven technologies that could enable reduced CO₂ emissions from high-emitting and hard-to-decarbonise sectors, such as power generation and heavy industries, including manufacturing, refining and petrochemicals.

ExxonMobil has more than 30 years of experience capturing CO₂ and has cumulatively captured more human-made CO₂ than any other company. It has an equity share of about one-fifth of the world’s carbon capture and storage capacity at about 9 million metric tons per year.

Opportunities for other high-emitting industrial sectors

In 2009, an Australian Government taskforce identified Gippsland as the most attractive region for CCS in Australia. 

Collaboration with other industries is an important step to unlock future carbon capture and storage opportunities for Australia, with the potential for large-scale reductions in the highest emitting industrial sectors.

Esso Australia is in active discussions with companies who may be interested in accessing the SEA CCS Hub to reduce emissions from their operations.

We are eager to hear from industry stakeholders interested in exploring how the SEA CCS Hub could support their emissions reductions goals.