Australia's first carbon capture and storage project, in Victoria's Otway Basin, has successfully stored 10,000 tonnes of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide deep underground.
CO2CRC Otway Project chief executive Peter Cook said the achievement was the first major milestone.
The gas, converted to liquid form, is now being stored 2km underground in a depleted natural gas reservoir.
"We are closely monitoring the carbon dioxide through one of the world's most comprehensive geosequestration monitoring programs and every indication is that the carbon dioxide is behaving just as researchers have predicted," Dr Cook said in a statement.
"The injection process is proceeding very well and we are now starting on our next 10,000 tonnes." He said the monitoring program would allow researchers to track the behaviour of the carbon dioxide in the storage reservoir using very sophisticated geophysical and geochemical techniques.
"Soil, groundwater and atmospheric monitoring complement the subsurface activities," Dr Cook said.
"The use of such a wide variety of monitoring techniques gives us a high level of confidence that the compressed liquid carbon dioxide is stored safely and securely." The CO2CRC Otway Project was officially opened by federal Resources Minister Martin Ferguson on April 2.
During the project, carbon dioxide is compressed to a fluid-like state, piped, injected and stored 2km underground in a depleted natural gas field, where the rocks had previously held natural gas for possibly millions of years.
