GOLD glory for CO₂ research

CSIRO expertise as part of the Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technologies’  (CO2CRC), recently received a prestigious industry award for its teamwork, value creation and innovation.

The oil and gas giant, Schlumberger presented the GOLD award, an internal recognition award, last month to team members of the CO2CRC Otway Project. The Otway project, themed “Carbon: Hot at Cooling the Climate”, was one of four selected out of approximately 460 world-wide projects competing, to win a GOLD award.

A commemorative plaque was presented to Dr Peter Cook, CEO of the CO2CRC, in honour of the award during a CO2CRC symposium in early December. Project team members from CSIRO, Curtin University of Technology and the Adelaide School of Petroleum (ASP) and the University of New South Wales (UNSW) who contributed to the project will also be given individual plaques.

Through the Energy Transformed National Research Flagship, CSIRO Petroleum Resources and Marine and Atmospheric Research expertise and capabilities have played an integral role in the successful delivery of the CO2CRC Otway Project, Australia’s first demonstration of the geological storage of carbon dioxide (CO₂).

The CO2CRC Otway project, valued for its delivery of outstanding science and significant impact, is regarded as one of the most sophisticated and comprehensive CO₂ storage projects world-wide with up to 100 000 tonnes of CO₂ planned to be injected two kilometres underground. Storing carbon dioxide deep underground is now widely recognised as a potential solution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.