Woodside Pluto Carbon Offset Project - Stage 3

Woodside Pluto Carbon Offset Project - Stage 3 is a permanent mallee planting project located at various agricultural properties across the Western Australian Wheatbelt and regional New South Wales, as specific coordinate and area details are officially suppressed under Section 169 of the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) Act. It was registered in October 2014. While the exact project area size remains undisclosed, the broader regions targeted by this offset program are historically known for extensive dryland cropping, such as wheat, and sheep grazing.

The project falls under the Reforestation by Environmental or Mallee Plantings (FullCAM) methodology. This method involves establishing permanent plantings of native tree species at sufficient stocking densities to achieve forest cover, typically defined as reaching at least 20% crown cover and a minimum height of 2 metres, on land that was predominantly used for agriculture for at least five years prior to project commencement.

The environmental conditions of these planting regions typically feature semi-arid to Mediterranean climates with low to moderate winter-dominant rainfall. The soil profiles in the targeted Western Australian Wheatbelt areas commonly consist of sandy loams, lateritic gravels, and duplex soils (sand over clay), while the regional New South Wales sites generally feature red-brown earths and clay loams highly suitable for mallee root systems.

This project was set up by Woodside Burrup Pty. Ltd. and CO2 Australia as part of a larger, multi-stage native reforestation program to generate Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs). These credits are primarily used to offset Scope 1 greenhouse gas emissions from Woodside's Pluto LNG Facility on the Burrup Peninsula. The permanent plantings specifically utilize Eucalyptus loxophleba (York Gum) and Eucalyptus polybractea (Blue Mallee), both of which are highly resilient and adapted to the semi-arid agricultural landscapes. In August 2022, the project method was varied from the older Reforestation and Afforestation-1.2 method to the updated FullCAM methodology to improve carbon modeling accuracy.