GE and Chevron ink $400m CCS deal

Oil giant Chevron has awarded General Electric (GE) a $400m (£240m) contract to deploy gas injection technology as part of the world's largest carbon capture and storage project at a huge Gorgon natural gas field off the Western Australian coast.

Under the deal, GE is to supply six units capable of injecting captured CO2 1.3km underground. Chevron estimates the flagship project will sequester four times more CO2 than any other project worldwide.

GE will also supply three units that will chill and then pump 15 million tonnes of natural gas a year from the field via subsea and underground pipelines to gas treatment and liquefaction facilities on Barrow Island off the coast of Australia.

Prior to liquefaction the CO2 will be stripped out of the gas and injected back into the depleted natural gas wells.

All the units will be manufactured and tested in Italy before being shipped to Australia by 2012, GE said.

Claudi Santiago, president and chief executive of GE's Oil and Gas division said the "technologically complex project... will deliver cleaner energy on an unprecedented scale".

The Gorgon field, located off Western Australia, is thought to contain approximately 40 trillion cubic feet of gas – around eight per cent of current global capacity.

Chevron estimates that the net impact of using gas from the field to replace coal will result in around 45 million tonnes less greenhouse gas emissions each year.

Demand for natural gas – the cleanest burning fossil fuel – is expected to grow by more than 67 per cent by 2030, according to the Energy Information Administration.