Oxy chief suggests nuclear an option
Among big oil companies, Occidental Petroleum has taken one of the more aggressive approaches to the energy transition, thrusting down a path that would transform it into a carbon management company.
During a morning “Voices of Innovation” session at CERAWeek by S&P Global in downtown Houston, Oxy CEO Vicki Hollub acknowledged that the transition might take the company in more than one direction
Would the company move into nuclear energy? “I’d love to,” she said, adding that lithium extraction was on the table as well. “I think nuclear is going to have to be a key part of the energy equation going forward,” she said. “It’s just a matter of which of the nuclear options are going to be most suitable.”
Oxy is open to branching into new technologies that share synergies with its existing operations, she said, noting that the company has looked at investing in nuclear technologies and believes modular designs could evolve to a place of more prominence in the energy mix.
The move is both right for the climate and for the industry, she said.
And because Oxy is no stranger to salty water in its oil and gas and chemicals businesses, she said, it could position the company to branch into extracting lithium from geothermal water. “We are looking at possible lithium projects.”
Hollub also touted Oxy’s carbon capture strategy as an important path for the transition. Using captured carbon for enhanced oil recovery yields net-zero barrels of oil, she said, as it redeploys the carbon dioxide generated from burning oil for the purposes of extracting more.
She argued that it’s a better move than expending carbon to build new facilities that make synthetic fuels.
“It’s the better thing to do,” she said. “In my view, the world cannot afford the climate transition without doing it this way.”