Three more companies have announced their support for the massive proposed carbon capture and storage hub in the Houston Ship Channel.
Anglo-Dutch supermajor Shell, French player Air Liquide, and German chemicals giant BASF are the newest companies to express interest in the project, which aims to capture up to 50 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year by 2030 and 100 million tpa by 2040.
A total of 14 companies have now expressed their support for the project: Calpine, Chevron, Dow, ExxonMobil, INEOS, Linde, LyondellBasell, Marathon Petroleum, NRG Energy, Phillips 66 and Valero.
ExxonMobil proposed the project in April 2021, calling for a combined investment of at least $100 billion and launching this coalition of companies exploring the potential for CCS in the region.
The companies held a series of workshops at the University of Houston in December to discuss their collaboration on the project.
“Large-scale carbon capture and storage in the Houston region will be a cornerstone for the world’s energy transition, and these companies’ efforts are crucial toward advancing CCS development to achieve broad scale commercial impact,” said Charles McConnell, director of University of Houston’s Centre for Carbon Management in Energy and former assistant secretary in the US Department of Energy.
“As the energy capital of the world, Houston has the expertise and leadership—including industry, academia and policymakers—to realize a low carbon, reliable and affordable energy future. I look forward to working alongside these 14 companies to make Houston the global leader in CCS.”
ExxonMobil said CCS could help the US reach net-zero goals, as long as appropriate regulations and policies are enacted to support the technology.
The company officially announced its own net-zero targets earlier this week.
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