• GeoVault, Buru’s wholly owned CCS focused subsidiary, has recently completed an independently validated geological greenhouse gas (GHG) storage potential assessment for areas in and around Buru’s petroleum permits and licences in the Canning Basin. 
• GeoVault’s assessment of areas within the Canning Basin is based on surface and subsurface factors, and Estimated Ultimate Storage (EUS) estimates have been prepared for each area in accordance with the CO2 Storage Resources Management System (‘SRMS’). 
• The results were independently reviewed by RISC Advisory (RISC), and were found to be reasonable, taking into account assumptions in defining, characterising and preparing the EUS estimates for these areas. 
• The EUS storage capacity for GeoVault’s defined areas significantly exceeds the estimated Scope 1 and Scope 2 CO2 emissions from the proposed Rafael conventional gas and condensate hub scale development, providing further confidence in the commercialisation pathway for a larger scale, CCS enabled development.

Buru Energy provide the following operations update for its wholly owned Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) business, GeoVault Pty Ltd (GeoVault). 

The in-house GeoVault team has world class expertise and experience in CCS activity and has recently completed an assessment of the geological greenhouse gas (GHG) storage potential for areas in and around Buru’s petroleum licences and permits that has been independently validated by RISC.

This assessment is in support of the commercialisation pathway for Buru’s 100% owned, low reservoir CO2 Rafael conventional gas and condensate discovery in the onshore Canning Basin of Western Australia.

The independently reviewed CO2 storage estimates prepared by GeoVault for these areas confirmed material hub scale CCS potential, that significantly exceeds the estimated source CO2 emissions from a larger-scale Rafael project, thus providing a pathway to potentially significant reductions in Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions from the planned project.

Continued work by the Geovault team on this assessment is being undertaken with the understanding that the Western Australian government is working expeditiously to prepare and enact legislation that would allow onshore carbon capture and storage (CCS) activities to be undertaken in the State.

Buru’s CEO Thomas Nador commented: 
“CCS is a globally utilised safe and established method to support the decarbonisation of industry, and the work done to date by GeoVault confirms that Buru’s current operational area in the Canning Basin has the capacity to store not only carbon emissions related to a potentially large-scale Rafael development but that of other carbon emitters, including potential international carbon emitters. 

The GeoVault team will continue to leverage Buru’s extensive geological knowledge and operational expertise in the Canning Basin to support the commercialisation of the Rafael development and contribute to the realisation of a future carbon neutral economy for the benefit of stakeholders.”

Independent verification 

According to the SRMS, CO2 storage resources require quantification of the amount of potential underground CO2 storage and the amount of source CO2 available for storage. Storage resources are limited to the smaller of these two amounts. Resources also require adequate definition of a potentially commercial CO2 storage project and entitlement to store CO2.

The estimated amount of CO2 that can be stored in a given area of a saline aquifer storage formation is termed the Estimated Ultimate Storage (‘EUS’), an SRMS term. This EUS cannot be classified as a storage resource until a storage project, including the source of CO2 is defined and entitlement to store CO2 established.

GeoVault has estimated the amount of CO2 that may be available for storage from the proposed Rafael conventional gas and condensate development, and has prepared a deterministic estimate of the EUS for areas associated with its existing permit areas in the Canning Basin.

This work was independently reviewed by RISC and was found to be reasonable, taking into account the methodology used in defining, characterising and preparing the EUS estimates.

This provides further confidence in the feasibility of a regional, co-located CCS project with the ability to support a significantly reduced emissions profile for the Rafael development.

KeyFacts Energy: Buru Energy Australia country profile   l   KeyFacts Energy: Carbon Capture news