The McGowan Government has given oil and gas giant Chevron some breathing space for its increasingly desperate efforts to get the troubled Gorgon carbon capture and storage project working.

Environment Minister Stephen Dawson told WestBusiness he would give Chevron the “benefit of the doubt” that it could overcome technical issues that have delayed the plant’s start-up by almost two years.

Chevron had planned to inject between 5.5 million and 7.8 million tonnes of CO2 in that period.

Mr Dawson recently toured the facility on the Pilbara’s Barrow Island which was designed to bury some of the carbon emissions from the $US54 billion LNG project.

During the tour, Mr Dawson said he had been given assurances “from the CEO downwards” that technical problems that have bedevilled the carbon sequestration plant would be fixed by early next year.

He said he would take the company at its word instead of resorting to drastic measures.

However, the minister said he might have to step in if the plant could not be started “in six months or a year’s time” to discuss how Gorgon could offset its emissions.

The comments are likely to come as a relief for Chevron given Gorgon was the biggest source of carbon pollution in Australia, apart from coal-fired power stations, in the 12 months to June 2017, according to the Clean Energy Regulator.

Under the terms of its agreement with the Government, Chevron is supposed to sequester 80 per cent of carbon dioxide emissions from Gorgon’s offshore fields on a five-year rolling average “from the commencement of operations”.

In April, Mr Dawson asked the Environmental Protection Authority to address some uncertainty about exactly when the injection requirement starts.

At his request the EPA is also considering whether to reimpose a requirement for Chevron’s Wheatstone LNG project to offset emissions from its reservoir gas that was removed by the Barnett government.

An EPA spokeswoman said it expected to complete both inquiries in the March quarter of next year.

A Chevron spokeswoman said it expected to begin injecting CO2 in the same quarter.

The company did not respond to a query about whether it was confident it could meet the requirement of injecting at least 80 per cent of reservoir gas.

Conservation Council director Piers Verstagen said he welcomed the minister’s commit- ment to hold Chevron to account but he believed Chevron would continue to delay the inevitable for as long as possible.

“We do not believe that the geosequestration will provide a long-term solution,” Mr Verstagen said.

“It is being used by Chevron as a means to avoid their responsibility,” he said.

“The longer the company is allowed to delay action waiting for an unproven technology to work, the more it is costing jobs in clean industries such as tree planting and renewable energy, which Chevron could invest in to control pollution right now.”

Source: The West Australian