Occidental To Remove CO2 From Air, Use It To Boost Oil Recovery In The Permian

A subsidiary of Occidental and Canadian clean energy company Carbon Engineering are teaming up to build the world’s biggest Direct Air Capture (DAC) and sequestration facility in the Permian that will suck carbon dioxide from the air to be later used in enhanced oil recovery.

Occidental’s subsidiary Oxy Low Carbon Ventures (OLCV) and Carbon Engineering are proceeding with the engineering and design of this facility aimed at capturing 500 kilotons of carbon dioxide (CO2) directly from the atmosphere each year, which would be used in Occidental’s enhanced oil recovery (EOR) operations and subsequently stored underground permanently, the companies said in a joint statement.

In case the two companies approve the plant, construction is expected to start in 2021, and the plant is set to be operational some two years later.

“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,” OLCV President Richard Jackson said.

“These carbon removal technologies need to be deployed widely and at large enough scales to be climate-relevant,” Steve Oldham, CEO at Carbon Engineering, said.

Carbon Engineering—a privately owned company funded by private investors, including Bill Gates and Murray Edwards—said last year that it had developed an affordable way to capture CO2 from the atmosphere and convert it into clean fuels. Not only are the scientists sucking CO2 out of the air, but they are also commercializing a process which uses water electrolysis and fuels synthesis to produce clean liquid hydrocarbon fuels that are drop-in compatible with existing transportation infrastructure.

Occidental, for its part, is already using CO2 to enable low-cost EOR and will have a lot more Permian operations after it outbid Chevron and signed earlier this month an agreement to buy Anadarko in one of the largest deals in the oil industry in the past few years.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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