Carbon capture and storage in Houston

Climate solutions

ExxonMobil is advancing several carbon capture and storage opportunities around the world to help support our commitment to to the Paris Agreement.

Carbon capture technology is proven

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is one of the few proven technologies that could enable some of the highest-emitting sectors to significantly reduce their emissions, such as manufacturing and heavy industry. For the past few years, we’ve been studying the approach of multi-user CCS zones in major industrial areas that are located near safe underground geologic storage sites.

Wyoming

ExxonMobil's LaBarge facility can capture 7 million tons of CO₂ a year, the largest of any industrial facility in the world.

Qatar

ExxonMobil is partnering with Qatar Petroleum, which operates the largest CCS facility in the Middle East at Ras Laffan. The facility has the capacity to capture 2.1 million metric tons of CO₂ per year.

Austrailia

ExxonMobil has partnered with other energy companies, including project operator Chevron, in the Gorgon project off the coast of western Australia. Up to 4 million metric tons of CO₂ per year can be captured here.

Canada

Imperial Oil, majority owned by ExxonMobil, is assessing potential CCS projects at several of its facilities in Canada. The company is also moving forward with plans to produce renewable diesel in Edmonton, using hydrogen with CCS as part of the manufacturing process. These projects support Canada's stated plan for a net-zero future.

Scotland

Through a joint venture with Shell, ExxonMobil is participating in the Acorn project which will capture CO₂ emissions from industrial facilities, including the St. Fergus gas processing complex, and store them offshore. The project has the potential to capture more than 5 million metric tons per year of CO₂.

Singapore

ExxonMobil is assessing the potential for a CCS hub that could capture, transport, and store CO₂ created by industrial activity throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

U.S. Gulf Coast

Multiple geological locations along and underneath the U.S. Gulf of Mexico have the potential to store millions of metric tons of CO₂. ExxonMobil has proposed a CCS hub concept in the Houston industrial area.

France

ExxonMobil has entered into an agreement with several European energy companies to explore the development of CCS infrastructure in the Normandy region. The group aims to reduce CO₂ emissions by up to 3 million metric tons per year by 2030, which is equivalent to the emissions of more than 1 million passenger cars.

Netherlands

Rotterdam, which is Europe's largest port, is progressing plans for the Port of Rotterdam CO₂ Transportation Hub and Offshore Storage (Porthos) project which plans to capture industrial CO₂ emissions and store them in depleted North Sea gas fields. ExxonMobil has signed a joint development agreement to advance its interest in the project.

Belgium

ExxonMobil is participating in a multi-stakeholder CCS project at the port of Antwerp, home to Europe's largest integrated energy and chemical cluster. The Antwerp@C project has the potential to capture 8 million metric tons of CO₂ annually by 2030 - a 50 percent reduction in the area's CO₂ emissions.

Malaysia

ExxonMobil and PETRONAS, the state-owned energy company of Malaysia, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to collaborate and jointly explore potential carbon capture and storage projects in Malaysia.

Indonesia

ExxonMobil and Pertamina, the state-owned energy company for Indonesia, are evaluating the potential for large-scale deployment of low-carbon technologies in Indonesia. By jointly examining subsurface data, the companies expect to identify geologic formation deep underground that could be suitable to safely store CO₂.

Russia

ExxonMobil has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Rosneft to assess lower carbon technologies for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in their operations. The companies will consider new projects initially focused on CCS and the development of lower-carbon fuels, such as hydrogen and ammonia.

Capture and store CO₂ in Houston

Carbon capture and storage could help the city of Houston meet its climate leadership aspirations and achieve its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050. ExxonMobil is one of several companies collaborating on a carbon capture and storage plan that could effectively decarbonize major industrial areas like the Houston Ship Channel.

The Houston industrial area is ideally suited for deploying CCS technology on a large scale, due to the large concentration of industrial emissions that are near expansive underground geological formations along the Gulf of Mexico coast and under the seabed. According to ExxonMobil’s analysis of U.S. Department of Energy estimates, these formations could hold about 500 billion metric tons of CO₂.

<p>Houston ship channel</p> — Houston ship channel

What is the potential for CCS in Houston?

ExxonMobil is one of several companies with operations in the greater Houston area that have expressed interest in capturing CO₂ emissions from their petrochemical, manufacturing and power generation facilities. The CO₂ would then be stored in natural geologic formations deep underground.
What opportunity does CCS present?

CCS could enable the United States to safely capture and store hundreds of millions of metric tons of CO₂ each year from industrial facilities that otherwise would go into the atmosphere. It’s one of the few proven technologies with the potential to significantly reduce emissions from manufacturing and heavy industry.
What are the potential environmental and economic benefits for Houston?

In addition to creating thousands of new jobs, the city of Houston could become a leader in the transition to a lower-carbon energy future. With appropriate government, industry and community backing, the participating companies believe they could safely capture and permanently store about 50 million metric tons of CO₂ annually by 2030 and double that by 2040, moving Houston toward its goal of becoming carbon-neutral by 2050.

How will Porthos work?

The Porthos CO₂ storage pipeline

In the Netherlands, ExxonMobil is working with a coalition of government and industry partners to advance the Port of Rotterdam CO₂ Transportation Hub and Offshore Storage (Porthos) project. The infrastructure will enable industrial sites in the port, like ExxonMobil’s petrochemical complex, to capture and supply CO₂ to a shared pipeline.

With potential support from the European and Dutch governments, the initiatives could position ExxonMobil’s Rotterdam refinery as an attractive location for a hydrogen project with CCS and for pilot testing ExxonMobil’s carbonate fuel cell technology.

The Porthos infrastructure will offer a way to transport and permanently store captured CO₂. After the CO₂ is pressurized in a compressor station, it will be transported through an offshore pipeline to the storage site, an empty natural gas field located approximately 20 km off the Dutch coast deep beneath the North Sea seabed.

Current plans aim for having the Porthos infrastructure built and functioning by the end of 2023.

CCS could enable the United States to safely capture and store hundreds of millions of metric tons of CO₂ each year that otherwise would be released into the atmosphere.