Oil Giants to Invest $1 Billion in Carbon Capture, Low-Emissions Technologies

industrial plant emissions

by | Nov 4, 2016

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industrial plant emissionsOil and gas giants including Shell, BP, Statoil and Total today said they will invest $1 billion in low-emissions technologies including carbon capture over the next 10 years.

The 10 companies — Eni, Repsol, Saudi Aramco, BP, Shell, Statoil, Total, China National Petroleum Corporation, Pemex and Reliance Industries — are part of the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative, a group formed in 2014 to support a global climate deal while continuing to advance their core hydrocarbon business.

In a joint statement, the CEOs of the 10 companies said they aim to deploy new low-carbon technologies across the oil and gas sector and pledged to work with manufacturers to cut the energy intensity of both transport and industry. These 10 companies represent 20 percent of global oil and gas production.

The companies will initially focus on carbon capture, use and storage as well as reducing methane emissions from the oil and gas industry. “The OGCI believes that these are areas where the oil and gas industry has meaningful influence and where its collaborative work can have the greatest impact,” the CEOs said.

“This is a historical announcement by the heads of 10 of the world’s largest oil and gas companies and demonstrates their commitment to reducing their carbon footprint and playing an important role in meeting the Paris Agreement,” said Carbon Capture and Storage Association chief executive Dr. Luke Warren in a statement.

Jeremy Leggett, chairman of the Carbon Tracker Initiative, founder of Solar Century Holdings, told Bloomberg that the investment is not enough. “It is encouraging that the 10 companies have seen the need to act on the day the Paris Agreement comes into force, but they are committing just $10 million a year each for 10 years,” Leggett, said. “Given that the world has to mobilize trillions of dollars a year for clean energy within that timeframe if the Paris goal is to be realized, this is quite simply nowhere near good enough.”

The $1 billion investment announcement comes as the Paris climate deal enters into force and three days before 200 countries meet in Marrakesh, Morocco, to discuss how to implement the agreement reached at COP21 in Paris last year.

It also follows news that FuelCell Energy and ExxonMobil will test their carbon capture technology at a coal and gas-fired power plant operated by Southern Company subsidiary Alabama Power.

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