Gas giant Chevron falls further behind on carbon capture targets for Gorgon gasfield

Gas giant Chevron has fallen even further behind on targets to capture and store CO2 at its mega gas project in Western Australian, but has refused to say by how much.

The company also confirmed on Friday it had bought and surrendered 5.23m tonnes of CO2 offsets to make up for the failure to meet its 2021 target at its CCS project at the offshore Gorgon gasfield in Western Australia.

The state government-set target for Gorgon to capture and store 80% of the CO2 from the gas is calculated on a five-year rolling average and in July last year Chevron said it had fallen 5.23Mt short.

On Friday the company said the latest five-year average would see it needing to buy more offsets, but would not say how many.

This would be disclosed later in the year, the company said, but the shortfall related to delays in getting the project up and running.

Chevron owns 47% of the Gorgon LNG project with partners ExxonMobil (25%) and Shell (25%).

The Guardian asked Chevron how much it had paid for the 5.23Mt.

The company confirmed these related to its shortfall at Gorgon, with the rest falling under two categories of carbon offsets bought from overseas markets.

Prices for ACCUs in the first six months of 2022 averaged $39 per tonne, Grossman said.