Oxy moves forward on project aimed at reducing CO2 emissions
Carbon capture could help slow global warming
Houston’s Occidental Petroleum said it is designing the first “direct air capture” plant in West Texas’ booming Permian Basin to suck carbon dioxide out of the sky and inject it into the ground to aid in oil production.
Oxy and Chevron earlier this year became the first major oil companies to put their money into so-called negative emissions technologies with the goal of developing direct air capture factories. They each invested in Carbon Engineering, a Canadian company that has developed a direct air capture pilot plant outside of Vancouver.
Now, Oxy is moving first with Carbon Engineering to begin the engineering and design work of what they’re calling the world’s largest direct air capture and sequestration facility to be located somewhere in West Texas.
“Using atmospheric CO2 for oil recovery greatly reduces the net addition of CO2 to the atmosphere from oil production and fuel use, and opens a pathway to producing fully carbon-neutral or even net-negative fuels,” said Richard Jackson, who oversees the company’s venture capital arm, Oxy Low Carbon Ventures.
Long-term viability
Earlier this month, Oxy outbid Chevron by agreeing to pay $38 billion to buy The Woodlands oil and gas company Anadarko Petroleum, including its prized acreage in the Permian.
Carbon capture is considered a vital technology for the longterm viability of the oil and gas industry, one of the biggest sources of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide and methane, which are blamed for global warming. The technology, still under development, remains costly and has yet to be adopted widely.
Direct air capture isn’t a silver bullet for solving climate change, but could help slow global warming, along with systems that remove carbon dioxide emissions from power plants and the expansion of wind, solar and other renewable technologies. For the time being, the world is far from achieving the goals of the 2016 Paris climate accord, which aims to prevent global temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius by 2100.
Direct air capture essentially uses giant fans to pull in air, which travels through a thin, chemical-coated plastic film that creates a chemical reaction with the carbon dioxide to create tiny pellets of calcium carbonate. The pellets can then be heated to create gaseous carbon dioxide streams for industrial uses.
Occidental Petroleum is one of the biggest industrial users of carbon dioxide. The company, a top producer in the Permian, pumps vast quantities of carbon dioxide into aging reservoirs to force more oil from wells, a process known as enhanced oil recovery.
1 million metric tons
Oxy, the industry leader in enhanced oil recovery, uses 50 million tons of carbon dioxide a year. Its ultimate goal: put more carbon dioxide into the ground than it takes out in the form of fossil fuels.
This proposed Permian plant would capture 500,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year. Oxy isn’t yet estimating project costs, but Carbon Engineering previously projected the cost of a major carbon capture plant at about $300 million to $500 million.
The plant would begin construction in 2021 and open no later than 2023, the companies said. The goal would be to eventually build several plants each capable to capturing 1 million metric tons per year.