The Otway International Test Centre
Field-tested CCS insight from the Otway International Test Centre
Before a carbon storage project reaches final investment decision, the biggest questions are technical, regulatory and commercial: Will the reservoir perform?
Can the plume be monitored? Will regulators and stakeholders trust the evidence? CO2Tech helps clients answer those questions using lessons drawn from one of the world’s most important CCS field research environments: the Otway International Test Centre (OITC) in south-west Victoria.
Through CO2CRC’s long-running Otway program, real CO2 injection, storage and monitoring data has been generated across depleted gas reservoirs and saline formations. This gives CO2Tech clients access to a rare evidence base: not just desktop theory, but practical knowledge from field-scale injection, well design, monitoring, geological response, plume behaviour and regulatory demonstration.
For project developers, governments and large emitters, that experience can help reduce uncertainty at the earliest stages of a CCS project — from storage screening and MMV strategy through to stakeholder confidence and investment-grade technical review.
Otway International Test Centre: field evidence for better CCS decisions
The Otway International Test Centre gives CO2Tech a point of difference that few advisory firms can match: direct connection to long-term, field-scale carbon storage research in Australian geology.
Operated by CO2CRC, the Otway facility has supported real CO2 injection, storage validation and monitoring technology development for more than a decade. Its infrastructure includes purpose-drilled CO2 storage wells, access to an in-situ CO2 gas field, multiple reservoir and seal types, seismic monitoring capability, regulatory approvals and established local community support.
For CO2Tech clients, Otway is not simply a research story. It is a practical knowledge base that informs how CCS projects are screened, designed, tested, monitored and explained to regulators, investors and communities.
What 20 years of Otway experience means for your CCS project
Carbon storage projects fail when uncertainty is discovered too late. Otway helps shift that risk forward.
The work undertaken through the Otway program has helped demonstrate how CO₂ behaves in the subsurface, how monitoring programs can be designed, how plume migration can be predicted, and how confidence can be built with regulators, landowners and the wider community. CO2Tech applies those lessons to commercial projects so clients can make better decisions earlier.
That matters for:
Storage site screening - applying field-informed judgement to reservoir suitability, containment, injectivity and data gaps.
MMV planning - designing monitoring, measurement and verification programs that are practical, defensible and aligned with regulatory expectations.
Project assurance - giving boards, investors and government stakeholders independent technical evidence before major capital is committed.
Regulatory readiness - translating scientific findings into clear documentation for permitting, approvals and long-term compliance.
Stakeholder confidence - using real field experience to explain how storage performance is monitored and verified over time.
From Otway field data to project confidence
1. Injection
2. Monitoring
Seismic, well-based and surface monitoring used to track storage performance.
3. Validation
Plume behaviour, trapping processes and containment confidence tested over
time.
4. Regulatory learning
Evidence translated into frameworks for approvals, MMV and compliance.
5. Commercial application
Real CO2 injected into test reservoirs under controlled field conditions.
What this means for your project
A CCS project is only investable when the technical case, regulatory pathway and monitoring plan are credible. CO2Tech brings together subsurface expertise, techno-regulatory experience and field-tested knowledge from Otway to help clients move from concept to approval with fewer unknowns.
Whether you are assessing a depleted gas field, saline formation, industrial hub, offshore storage opportunity or multi-user CCS development, CO2Tech can help define the evidence required to progress with confidence.
