The CarbonNet Project has reached an important milestone with the Noble Tom Prosser drilling rig now on location at the project's Pelican site in Bass Strait, approximately eight kilometres offshore from the Ninety Mile Beach in Gippsland.
Over December and January the rig will drill to a depth of about 1.5km below the seabed, extracting a core sample to confirm that identified rock structures deep under the seabed can permanently store carbon dioxide, thereby validating previous data collected by the CarbonNet project.
The CarbonNet team are hosting weekly drop-in sessions for curious community members at the Golden Beach Community Centre over the busy holiday period to ensure that both locals and holiday makers have an opportunity to stay informed of the project.
CarbonNet is advancing the science and viability of a commercial scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) network in Gippsland. The network would bring together multiple carbon dioxide (CO2) capture projects in Victoria's Latrobe Valley, transporting CO2 via a shared pipeline and injecting it into deep underground, offshore storage sites in Bass Strait.
Watch a short video showing the rig being floated in Port Phillip Bay and then towed to site off Gippsland.
