Woodside Pluto Carbon Offset Project - Stage 3

Woodside Pluto Carbon Offset Project - Stage 3 is a large-scale biosequestration project operating across multiple properties in New South Wales and Western Australia. Registered in October 2014, the project is part of a broader offset portfolio managed by CO2 Australia to meet the regulatory obligations of Woodside’s Pluto LNG facility. While specific property locations are suppressed in the public register, the project spans agricultural regions in both states, integrating carbon farming into existing rural landscapes.

The project utilizes the "Reforestation by Environmental or Mallee Plantings" methodology, which involves establishing permanent native tree cover on land previously used for cropping or grazing. Specifically, this stage plants Eucalyptus polybractea (Blue Mallee) and Eucalyptus loxophleba (York Gum). The choice of species indicates the distinct climatic regions involved: E. polybractea is native to the NSW Central West (typically around Parkes and West Wyalong), while E. loxophleba is endemic to the Western Australian Wheatbelt. These species are drought-tolerant "mallee" eucalypts, multi-stemmed trees capable of surviving in semi-arid environments with rainfall between 300mm and 600mm.

Environmental conditions across these project areas are typical of Australia's dryland agricultural zones, featuring sandy loam to clay soils. These regions often face challenges such as salinity and wind erosion, which the deep-rooted permanent mallee plantings help mitigate. As of late 2025, the project has successfully issued over 318,000 Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs), demonstrating significant growth and carbon storage over its decade of operation.