Reuters 27 Mar 09;
PERTH (Reuters) - Australia opened the bidding on Friday for ten offshore areas that will be used to store carbon dioxide, bringing its pioneering plan to reduce emissions by pumping the greenhouse gas beneath the ocean floor a step closer to reality.
Energy Minister Martin Ferguson said the release of greenhouse gas storage areas for commercial development was the world's first and part of the government's strategy to reduce its carbon emissions while maintaining economic growth.
"Advancing storage technology and capacity is vital to the future of Australia's coal industry and to coal's future as part of the world's transition to cleaner energy pathways," Ferguson said in a statement.
"It is also important for the oil and gas industry and our energy-intensive industries."
Governments and companies worldwide have been searching for ways of capturing and storing carbon to limit greenhouse gas emissions.
The government has said that depleted undersea natural gas reservoirs could be used to capture CO2 from coal-fired power stations, whose emissions are partly blamed for global warming.
A carbon emissions trading scheme is scheduled to be launched in Australia in 2010, aimed at reducing the country's carbon emissions by 5 percent of 2000 levels by 2020.
The move to allow companies to pump carbon dioxide underground would also help pave the way for the development of a multi-billion dollar gas export project proposed by U.S. energy major Chevron.
Chevron's proposed Gorgon liquefied natural gas (LNG) project off Western Australia state plans to inject 3 million metric tons of carbon dioxide underground each year -- which would be the world's largest carbon capture and storage project.
Australia, which signed the Kyoto Protocol in 2007, is the world's largest coal exporter and about half of the nation's carbon emissions come from its coal-fired power stations, which generate about 80 percent of the country's electricity needs.
The country's carbon emissions are forecast to grow due to its heavy reliance on coal for electricity, although the government says the country will meet its Kyoto emissions targets by 2012. Emissions will grow to 108 percent of 1990 levels from 2008 to 2012.
(Reporting by Fayen Wong; Editing by James Thornhill)
