Oxy shifts focus to net-zero goal

WASHINGTON — Occidental Petroleum said Wednesday that its plan to get to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by mid-century would rely heavily on sucking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and developing underground storage sites for greenhouse gases.

In a detailed report released Wednesday, the Houston oil company said its first commercial-scale carbon storage site and plant to remove carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere — a technology known as direct air capture — would begin operations by 2025, according to the report.

By 2040, Occidental would have expanded those operations to the point it would use only manmade carbon dioxide in its enhanced recovery oil operations. Enhanced recovery pumps carbon dioxide underground to boost oil production.

CEO Vicki Hollub described Occidental as transforming into a “carbon management company,” in an interview with the energy research firm IHS Markit.

“We are leveraging our expertise in carbon management and storage,” she said in astatement. “We will do this through innovation that reduces the impact of our and others’ operations in ways that benefit and expand our business.”

The plan follows an announcement last month that Occidental would not only get its own operations to net zero emissions but the company’s entire product line, including oil and petroleum based products. They are the first and only major U.S. oil company to make such a pledge, though Conoco Phillips has announced plans to get its own operations to net zero.

In order to achieve that larger goal while still selling carbon-rich oil and natural gas, Occidental will need to find ways to remove carbon from the atmosphere at a large scale.

To that end, the company envisions an international carbon capture and storage operation, complete with carbon pipelines and new industries that utilize carbon dioxide to make various products. Occidental itself plans to use carbon to make chemicals.

“While we recognize the magnitude of our ambitions to achieve net-zero for our operations and products,” the company’s report said, “we believe our pathway and capabilities can extend beyond our own corporate inventory,” read a climate report released by Occidental Wednesday.

Occidental has plans in place to build a direct air capture facility on a100-acre site in the Permian Basin, with construction scheduled to begin in 2022. They are partnered with the California private equity firm Rusheen Capital Management and the Canadian technology firm Carbon Engineering.

Carbon Engineering already operates a direct air capture facility in British Columbia as a pilot project. james.osborne@chron.com twitter.com/osborneja