Oxy Low Carbon Ventures, a subsidiary of Occidental, and Carbon Engineering are moving forward with the engineering and design of a Direct Air Capture (DAC) and sequestration facility.
The companies are evaluating a facility designed to capture 500 kilotonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) directly from the atmosphere each year, which would be used in Occidental’s enhanced oil recovery (EOR) operations. The plant would be located in the Permian Basin.
“We are excited to partner with Carbon Engineering on the first Direct Air Capture facility in the Permian Basin, enabling us to enhance our leadership position in CO2 EOR,” said OLCV President Richard Jackson in a press release. “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.”
“Climate experts tell us that, alongside other mitigation solutions, carbon removal technologies like DAC are going to be essential if we hope to decarbonize in time to avoid the worst impacts of climate change,” said Steve Oldham, CEO of CE in a press release.. “These carbon removal technologies need to be deployed widely and at large enough scales to be climate-relevant. This project – the largest DAC-sequestration plant in the world – is therefore a huge step forward in demonstrating the readiness of large-scale atmospheric carbon removal, and in accelerating efforts to bring global emissions down to net-zero, and eventually to net negative.”
The proposed project will start with one DAC plant that captures 500 kilotonnes of atmospheric CO2 per year. If the initial plant is approved by Occidental and Carbon Engineering, construction is expected to begin in 2021, with operations commencing in two years.