Exxon Mobil Corp. proposed a $ 100 billion giant center to capture carbon dioxide emissions along the U.S. Gulf Coast in Texas, but warned that government funding was needed to pay for and develop it.
In what would be the world’s largest carbon and sequestration project, Exxon, along with a host of private and public partners, would build a facility to emit refineries, petrochemical plants and other industrial facilities along the Houston Ship Channel, Joe Blommaert samel. President of Exxon’s new low-carbon enterprise said in a blogpos.
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Early projections show that by 2030, such a plant could bury 50 million tons per year under the Gulf of Mexico, more than all the CCS projects currently operating worldwide. Exxon said the figure could double by 2040.
Old oil and gas formations in the Gulf of Mexico have long been seen as the potential to store large amounts of carbon dioxide, but the challenge is to pay for them. Under the current regulatory environment, it is cheaper to simply let the pollutants float in the atmosphere. Exxon says the project could significantly reduce the country’s carbon footprint, as long as the government provides the right financial incentives to businesses.
“It will require government and private sector funding, as well as improved regulatory and legal frameworks that enable investment and innovation,” Exxon said.
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The oil major, under pressure from investors over his environmental record and recent financial returns, did not say how much money he would give to the project and recently reduced his capital budget to the lowest in two decades to protect his $ 15 billion a year . year dividend.
Last year, the company suspended a smaller but easier-to-implement carbon capture project in Wyoming due to the Covid-19 economic downturn. It would have cost about $ 260 million, or less than the 1% of what Exxon proposes for the Gulf Coast.
Nevertheless, carbon capture remains Exxon’s favorite method of reducing emissions, as it complements the oil giant’s oil and gas industry. President Joe Biden’s government has indicated that it is prepared to promote technology incentives in its Made In America tax plan released earlier this month.
“We believe CCS should be an important part of the US strategy to achieve its Paris goals,” Exxon said in the post. “However, new policies are needed to spur the investment needed to use CCS at a pace and scale to achieve Paris’s goals.”
(Updates with Exxon comments in the last paragraph.)