Recovery unit will cut emissions from BassGas

Age
Thursday 26/3/2009 Page: 4

CARBON emissions from the BassGas project in Gippsland will be cut by a quarter following a decision to build a $20 million recovery unit to capture greenhouse gas. The BassGas joint venture project, including Australian Worldwide Exploration, Origin Energy and CalEnergy, has signed an agreement with Air Liquide to construct the unit at the Lang Lang gas plant, 100 kilometres east of Melbourne.

The carbon captured will be purified, liquefied and then reused for various purposes including fire-fighting, winemaking, soft-drink carbonation, freezing and food preservation. Origin Energy and AWE each have a 42.5% share in the $750 million BassGas project, with CalEnergy holding the remaining 15% .

Paul Zealand, Origin Energy's executive general manager of upstream oil and gas, said the recovery unit would be up and running next year. "The amount of carbon that will be captured for reuse is equivalent to the annual greenhouse gas emissions of more than 21,000 cars or 4900 Australian homes," Mr Zealand said.

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