The federal government has approved two new offshore greenhouse gas storage areas, off the coast of Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
The first permit was issued to Woodside Energy in the Browse Basin off the coast of the Kimberley in WA's north.
A second was issued to a joint venture between INPEX, Woodside Energy, and TotalEnergies in the Bonaparte Basin, off the coast of the Northern Territory.
Three more permits will be issued at a later date for yet-to-be finalised locations.
Resources Minister Madeleine King said the permits were a first step for the companies involved.
"They are very positive about it, and they think it will work, and this enables them to look into that further," she told ABC Radio Perth.
Ms King said those companies were well placed to explore the potential of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) in Australia because they were at the forefront of dealing with the transportation of gas.
But she said the government was not by any measure resting all of its emissions reductions hopes on CCS.
"We won't rely on it entirely, it's one of the many means of getting to net zero, it's part of the toolkit," she said.
Ms King said renewable energy projects continued to be a major part of efforts to achieve the target of a 43 per cent reduction in emissions by 2030 and she said the resources companies were on the same page.
"Woodside and other companies also have other abatement programs, because they know CCS is not the entire answer, whether that's forestry projects or otherwise, there are other means of carbon sequestration and offsets," she said.
"And that's acceptable, this is what we as a community have accepted as part of the fight against global warming is the notion of offsets."
Conservation Council labels scheme 'smokescreen'
The Conservation Council of WA (CCWA) raised serious doubts about the issuing of the permits.
"Carbon capture and storage does not work, as has been proven time and again by several high profile failures of CCS technology, most recently at Chevron's Gorgon CCS plant in WA," CCWA executive director Maggie Wood said.
"Fossil fuel companies know that CCS doesn't work, but use it as a smokescreen behind which they can continue to expand their highly polluting business operations.
"More concerning, however, is that the federal government is seemingly ignorant to CCS's failings and is willing to throw billions of dollars at it through subsidies to the fossil fuel industry.
"Ring fencing thousands of acres of our marine environment as a store for carbon pollution is every bit as wrongheaded and dangerous as it sounds and this plan will now become a huge liability for the Australian taxpayer.
"It's hard to believe that this announcement is coming from the same Labor government which was swept to power on a wave of popular support for greater action on climate change."
But Ms King said it was important CCS was given a chance and the permits were crucial to allowing the companies to make progress in the field.
"They've got to go and do further exploration and make sure it can actually work, and make sure they make it work," she said.
"And the thing is we do pre-competitive exploration in this country, by Geoscience Australia, that identifies areas of prospectivity around carbon capture and storage.
"Like we do for all other interests in the country, like mineral tenements and gas exploration, so it's just another function of Geoscience Australia to identify this to the market."
Carbon capture 'proven technology': minister
One of the highest emitting resources projects in WA is Chevron's Gorgon gas project, which has included a trouble-plagued CCS project.
"I accept there is some critics around carbon capture and storage, but it is a proven technology. It's not proven to the stage and the volume of capture that we would like, or that certainly Chevron would have expected, and they accept that, and I accept that," Ms King said.
Ms King said Chevron's Barrow Island project was "ambitious" but that was not a bad thing.
"It's challenging because of the underwater formations, and they're working on that, and they've reached agreements with the state government on how to progress it," she said.
"But the thing about carbon capture, use, and storage is that it is proven technology. We need it to work better [and] I'm calling on the gas industry to turn their words into action.
"Because if we are to reach a net zero emissions economy, a global net zero emissions economy, we will need carbon capture and storage as part of the overall solution."
Ms King said that was also the position of the International Energy Agency and its executive director Fatih Birol.
"I met with the executive director of the International Energy Agency a few weeks ago now in Sydney, Dr Birol," she said.
"And he was adamant to me yet again that CCS must form part, just part, of our solution to reaching a global net zero position."
The new Resources Minister denied CCS technology was a pipe dream.
"There are a number of projects in the United States where it had been successful, and I would add that that Gorgon Project has been successful, it has stored 6.6 million tonnes of CO2," she said.
"That's not what they had aimed for, they had aimed higher, but that's 6.6 million tonnes that has successfully been stored, and it's 6.6 million tonnes of CO2 that's not in the air.
"That's a substantial achievement. Agreed, Chevron wanted to do better, and they still want to do better, and I support them in those efforts – so it is proven and it is happening."
New petroleum permits announced
Ms King's announcement of permits for offshore CCS came on the same day as the release of 46,758 square kilometres of new petroleum acreage for exploration.
"At the same time as we strive to reduce emissions it must be emphasised that continued exploration for oil and gas in Commonwealth waters is central to alleviating future domestic gas shortfalls," she said in a statement.
"Gas will play a key role as a transition fuel as Australia works to reach net zero emissions by 2050.
"Australia's energy sector also continues to support international energy security, particularly during the global turbulence caused largely by Russia's invasion of Ukraine."
The CCWA said it was "hard to believe" this was the same Labor government that was "swept to power to power on the wave of promising to take action on climate change".
