Oil producers Chevron Corp and Talos Energy Inc on Monday said they have tripled the size of a proposed carbon capture and storage hub for the Gulf Coast.
Their joint venture, which includes Carbonvert Inc, plans to collect and bury greenhouse gases from clients in the petrochemical, cement, steel and other industrial businesses along the Texas coast. The cost of the acquisition was not disclosed.
The so-called Bayou Bend hub is one of Chevron's top global bets for carbon capture, utilization, and sequestration (CCUS), a potentially multi-trillion dollar market by 2050.
"The market is huge," Chevron's vice president for CCUS, Chris Powers, told reporters at the CERAWeek energy conference by S&P. "In order to meet the ambitions of the Paris Agreement, we are going to do CCUS at massive scale, with multiple hubs like this."
The first injection is expected for around 2026. Timing will depend on the regulatory process and clients needs, said Robin Fielder, chief sustainability officer for Talos.
The group will start to seek long-term customers, including those looking to use CCUS associated with hydrogen production, the executives said.
The venture added nearly 100,000 onshore acres (405 square kilometers) to its existing 40,000 acre site. The expanded area could store more than 1 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases.
The trio said the deal positions their Bayou Bend hub as a storage site for carbon emitted by hard to abate industries in the region, one of the largest industrial corridors in the United States.
Chevron is investing $10 billion through 2028 in its Low Carbon ventures including CCUS and hydrogen fuel. The company is investing in technologies to allow hydrogen transportation, including through ammonia, the company's vice president of hydrogen Austin Knight said during the conference.
While technology for hydrogen production already exists, for transportation in a large scale the technology is still in the early stages, he said.
(Reporting by Sabrina Valle/Editing by Marguerita Choy, David Gregorio and Chris Reese)