Moomba's Makeover: A$607M to Power Australia's Carbon Hub

Santos and Beach Energy commit A$607M to overhaul Cooper Basin infrastructure and anchor Australia's biggest carbon storage hub

19 Mar 2026

Santos and Beach Energy have approved a combined A$607 million investment to overhaul shared infrastructure in the Cooper Basin, deepening their commitment to a remote South Australian gas hub that doubled as Australia's largest onshore carbon capture and storage facility.

The final investment decision, announced on 9 March, covers a project known as Moomba Central Optimisation. Seven ageing gas-driven compressor stations will be replaced by a single electric-powered facility. Santos will contribute A$357 million over three years; Beach Energy will invest approximately A$250 million. The partners say the project is expected to generate more than A$1 billion in lifetime cost savings.

The infrastructure upgrade is also designed to cut emissions. The new facility is projected to reduce Scope 1 output by more than 40,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year, supporting the adjacent Moomba CCS operation, which began injecting carbon dioxide in late 2024.

That CCS facility, in which Santos holds a 67 per cent interest and Beach Energy the remaining 33 per cent, has a storage capacity of up to 1.7 million tonnes of CO2 annually. Since startup it has sequestered more than 340,000 tonnes. Santos has previously indicated the Cooper Basin could support decades of additional storage, and has agreements in place with Japanese energy firms to assess cross-border CO2 imports.

The investment arrives as government support for carbon capture infrastructure grows. Canberra has committed A$556 million to map geological storage potential, and new bilateral frameworks now allow cross-border CO2 transfer. The global CCUS market is projected to approach US$18 billion by 2030, though much of that growth depends on regulatory continuity and commercial offtake agreements that remain, in many cases, unresolved.

Beach Energy has said the Moomba partnership puts it on track for a 35 per cent reduction in emissions intensity by 2030. Santos has pointed to the optimised hub as a foundation for future low-carbon fuel production, including synthetic methane.
Whether the Moomba precinct can sustain the commercial and regulatory conditions required to fulfil that ambition over the long term remains an open question.