The Federal Government has opened up large new offshore gas exploration and storage areas. 

The Albanese government has approved two new offshore greenhouse gas storage areas, off the coast of Western Australia and the Northern Territory, issuing permits to Woodside Energy in the Browse Basin off the coast of the Kimberley in WA's north and to a joint venture between INPEX, Woodside Energy, and TotalEnergies in the Bonaparte Basin, off the coast of the Northern Territory.

The government says three more permits will be issued at a later date for yet-to-be finalised locations.

The government has also released 46,758 square kilometres of new offshore petroleum acreage for exploration.

Resources Minister Madeleine King said the permits would allow the companies to explore the potential of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) in Australia in the transportation of gas.

CCS technology is in its infancy, and has been criticised as a distraction from true carbon reduction activities that allows fossil fuel producers and users to continue their damaging practices under the smokescreen of future remediation. 

But Ms King says the companies involved believe it is worth looking into. 

“They are very positive about it, and they think it will work, and this enables them to look into that further,” she told reporters.

Ms King said it is important to give CCS a chance.

“They've got to go and do further exploration and make sure it can actually work, and make sure they make it work,” she said.

“And the thing is we do pre-competitive exploration in this country, by Geoscience Australia, that identifies areas of prospectivity around carbon capture and storage.

“Like we do for all other interests in the country, like mineral tenements and gas exploration, so it's just another function of Geoscience Australia to identify this to the market.

“Woodside and other companies also have other abatement programs, because they know CCS is not the entire answer, whether that's forestry projects or otherwise, there are other means of carbon sequestration and offsets,” she said.

The Conservation Council of WA (CCWA) has raised doubts about technology.

“Carbon capture and storage does not work, as has been proven time and again by several high profile failures of CCS technology, most recently at Chevron's Gorgon CCS plant in WA,” CCWA executive director Maggie Wood says. 

“Fossil fuel companies know that CCS doesn't work, but use it as a smokescreen behind which they can continue to expand their highly polluting business operations.

“More concerning, however, is that the federal government is seemingly ignorant to CCS's failings and is willing to throw billions of dollars at it through subsidies to the fossil fuel industry.

“Ring fencing thousands of acres of our marine environment as a store for carbon pollution is every bit as wrongheaded and dangerous as it sounds and this plan will now become a huge liability for the Australian taxpayer.

“It's hard to believe that this announcement is coming from the same Labor government which was swept to power on a wave of popular support for greater action on climate change.”

Ms King said the new gas exploration permits will help Australia avoid a gas shortfall. 

“At the same time as we strive to reduce emissions it must be emphasised that continued exploration for oil and gas in Commonwealth waters is central to alleviating future domestic gas shortfalls,” she said in a statement.

“Gas will play a key role as a transition fuel as Australia works to reach net zero emissions by 2050.

“Australia's energy sector also continues to support international energy security, particularly during the global turbulence caused largely by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.”