The Global CCS Institute, Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum and IEAGHG have all stated that understanding a country's storage potential is one of the most critical steps to the deployment and acceleration of CCS globally. The Australian Government recognises the need to undertake geological studies to understand the nation’s CO₂ storage potential and capacity.

The Petrel Sub-basin CO₂ storage prospectivity study was completed by Geoscience Australia, as part of the Australian Government’s multi-basin CO₂ storage assessment initiative. I was part of this project during my time at Geoscience Australia and an author on the main report, which was presented at GHGT-12 by my former Government colleagues. The Petrel Sub-basin lies offshore in the shallow waters (less than 100 metres) of the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf, west of Darwin, Northern Territory. This region of Australia does not traditionally have large sources of greenhouse gas emissions but the growing LNG processing industry near Darwin could see the region's emissions grow to around 14 million tonnes per annum by 2020 (Carbon Storage Taskforce, 2009).

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Source: Global CCS Institute, 14 Oct 2014