Reports related to this article:
Project(s): View 2 related projects in PECWeb
Plant(s): View 2 related plants in PECWeb
Released May 03, 2021 | SUGAR LAND
en
Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--There's no bones about it: The Houston, Texas, area is the ideal place for a massive buildout of carbon capture and storage (CCS) assets, Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) (Irving, Texas) Chief Executive Officer Darren Woods said last week.
Touting the company's commitment to CCS, Woods said during its quarterly earnings-related conference call on Friday that ExxonMobil's planned CCS investments represent more than 3% of the total addressable market, more than 10 times the company's investment share in other markets. In comparison, the value of ExxonMobil's upstream, downstream and chemicals investments represent less than 0.3% of the total addressable market. ExxonMobil claims to be responsible for 40% of all carbon dioxide (CO2) captured since 1970.
ExxonMobil is particularly interested in investing in a CCS hub in the heavily industrialized area around the Houston Ship Channel, creating a "Carbon Capture Innovation Zone."
Click on the image at right for a slide from the presentation outlining aspects of ExxonMobil's proposed CCS Innovation Zone concept. Source: ExxonMobil
Woods said, "Houston is an ideal location for a major project. The plants along the heavily industrialized Ship Channel represent some of the hardest sectors to decarbonize. They're also relatively close together, providing project scale and reducing unit costs." Woods noted that the area's proximity to the Gulf of Mexico provided direct access to suitable storage locations, citing the U.S. Department of Energy, which says that the geology beneath the seafloor has the capacity to store 500 billion tons of CO2, 100 years' worth of current U.S. CO2 emissions.
"As currently envisioned, the project could capture 50 million metric tons of CO2 per year by 2030 and twice that by 2040. This would put Houston well on its way to reaching its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050," said Woods.
Among its other proposed CCS projects is the addition of CCS equipment at the Shute Creek gas plant in Wyoming. Subsidiary ExxonMobil Low Carbon Solutions and engineer Jacobs Engineering Group Incorporated (NYSE:J) (Dallas, Texas) are in the permitting phase for the first part of the project, which could begin construction later this year and be followed by second phase. If you are a subscriber to Industrial Info's Oil & Gas Production database, click here for a list of related projects.
Elsewhere in ExxonMobil's businesses, results were mostly strong for first-quarter 2021. Upstream, the company increased total production volumes by 98,000 oil-equivalent barrels per day (BBL/d) from the fourth quarter. Most of this comes from natural gas, as liquids volumes were down 3% due to higher maintenance and problems caused by Winter Storm Uri. Despite the storm, ExxonMobil's production in the Permian Basin remained unchanged from the prior quarter. Despite a 35% reduction in capital spending in the Permian, the company has increased production in the region by approximately 60,000 barrels of oil-equivalent per day (Boe/d) compared with first-quarter 2020. Earnings in the Upstream segment were $2.55 billion, compared with $536 million in first-quarter 2020.
In the Downstream segment, Stephen Littleton, vice president of investor relations, noted that North American refining margins improved, but in Europe, margins remained impacted by COVID-19-related lockdowns. Overall, margins remain well below 10-year averages, and the Downstream segment brought a $390 million loss in the just-passed quarter.
Chemicals margins, according to Wood, "have swung from the bottom to the top." This segment had earnings of $1.42 billion.
ExxonMobil's overall net income was $2.7 billion in the first quarter of 2021, compared with a loss of $610 million in first-quarter 2020. The company's estimated capital program for 2021 is between $16 billion and $19 billion, compared with $23 billion in 2020.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, six offices in North America and 12 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities. Follow IIR on: Facebook - Twitter - LinkedIn.
Touting the company's commitment to CCS, Woods said during its quarterly earnings-related conference call on Friday that ExxonMobil's planned CCS investments represent more than 3% of the total addressable market, more than 10 times the company's investment share in other markets. In comparison, the value of ExxonMobil's upstream, downstream and chemicals investments represent less than 0.3% of the total addressable market. ExxonMobil claims to be responsible for 40% of all carbon dioxide (CO2) captured since 1970.
ExxonMobil is particularly interested in investing in a CCS hub in the heavily industrialized area around the Houston Ship Channel, creating a "Carbon Capture Innovation Zone."
Click on the image at right for a slide from the presentation outlining aspects of ExxonMobil's proposed CCS Innovation Zone concept. Source: ExxonMobilWoods said, "Houston is an ideal location for a major project. The plants along the heavily industrialized Ship Channel represent some of the hardest sectors to decarbonize. They're also relatively close together, providing project scale and reducing unit costs." Woods noted that the area's proximity to the Gulf of Mexico provided direct access to suitable storage locations, citing the U.S. Department of Energy, which says that the geology beneath the seafloor has the capacity to store 500 billion tons of CO2, 100 years' worth of current U.S. CO2 emissions.
"As currently envisioned, the project could capture 50 million metric tons of CO2 per year by 2030 and twice that by 2040. This would put Houston well on its way to reaching its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050," said Woods.
Among its other proposed CCS projects is the addition of CCS equipment at the Shute Creek gas plant in Wyoming. Subsidiary ExxonMobil Low Carbon Solutions and engineer Jacobs Engineering Group Incorporated (NYSE:J) (Dallas, Texas) are in the permitting phase for the first part of the project, which could begin construction later this year and be followed by second phase. If you are a subscriber to Industrial Info's Oil & Gas Production database, click here for a list of related projects.
Elsewhere in ExxonMobil's businesses, results were mostly strong for first-quarter 2021. Upstream, the company increased total production volumes by 98,000 oil-equivalent barrels per day (BBL/d) from the fourth quarter. Most of this comes from natural gas, as liquids volumes were down 3% due to higher maintenance and problems caused by Winter Storm Uri. Despite the storm, ExxonMobil's production in the Permian Basin remained unchanged from the prior quarter. Despite a 35% reduction in capital spending in the Permian, the company has increased production in the region by approximately 60,000 barrels of oil-equivalent per day (Boe/d) compared with first-quarter 2020. Earnings in the Upstream segment were $2.55 billion, compared with $536 million in first-quarter 2020.
In the Downstream segment, Stephen Littleton, vice president of investor relations, noted that North American refining margins improved, but in Europe, margins remained impacted by COVID-19-related lockdowns. Overall, margins remain well below 10-year averages, and the Downstream segment brought a $390 million loss in the just-passed quarter.
Chemicals margins, according to Wood, "have swung from the bottom to the top." This segment had earnings of $1.42 billion.
ExxonMobil's overall net income was $2.7 billion in the first quarter of 2021, compared with a loss of $610 million in first-quarter 2020. The company's estimated capital program for 2021 is between $16 billion and $19 billion, compared with $23 billion in 2020.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, six offices in North America and 12 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities. Follow IIR on: Facebook - Twitter - LinkedIn.
