(Credit: ExxonMobil)ExxonMobil has launched a new business focusing initially on carbon capture and storage (CCS), a critical technology required to achieve net zero emissions and the climate goals outlined in the Paris Agreement, the company says. ExxonMobil Low Carbon Solutions is working on more than 20 new carbon capture and storage opportunities around the world to enable large-scale emission reductions.
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the International Energy Agency agree that CCS is a key low-carbon technology required to achieve societal climate goals at the lowest cost. ExxonMobil says it is one of the only technologies that could enable certain industry sectors — including the refining, chemicals, cement and steel sectors — to decarbonize.
CCS could potentially allow producers of fossil fuels to continue pumping oil and gas as some countries tighten regulations on carbon emissions, writes the Wall Street Journal. ExxonMobile is continuing to focus its business on oil and gas without significantly investing in renewables, according to the article.
Via the new business, ExxonMobil plans to invest $3 billion on lower emission energy solutions through 2025.
Some of the CCS projects the company is working on include:
—Expansion of its La Barge CCS facilities in Wyoming, which could enable an additional one million tonnes of CO2 per year to be captured. Existing facilities currently capture approximately 7 million tonnes per year, the largest amount of CO2 captured by any industrial facility in the world, the company says.
—A joint development agreement to advance its interest in Porthos (Port of Rotterdam CO2 Transportation Hub and Offshore Storage), a project in the Netherlands that aims to collect CO2 emissions from industrial sources and transport them by pipeline to depleted North Sea offshore gas fields.
—A multi-stakeholder project at the Port of Antwerp, Europe’s largest integrated energy and chemicals cluster. The project would collect CO2 emissions from industrial sources for storage.
—A CCS hub concept in Singapore to capture, transport and permanently store CO2 generated by industrial activity in the Asia-Pacific region.
ExxonMobil has been under pressure from activists to step up its efforts to create more “climate-friendly initiatives,” writes Barron’s.
