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LONDON—Occidental Petroleum Corp. is going all-in on its direct air capture (DAC) plans.

The Houston-based independent E&P plans to accelerate its DAC program to include as many as 135 sites thanks to the tax incentives provided in the Inflation Reduction Act, CEO Vicki Hollub said during two events at the Energy Intelligence Forum 2022 on Oct. 5.

But Occidental isn’t stepping back from oil production. Hollub said she expects CO2 EOR to produce carbon-neutral crude oil for corporations, potentially including United Airlines, which she believes will be willing to pay higher prices for the decarbonized fuel. In 2021, for example, Occidental shipped its first cargo of carbon-neutral oil to India’s Reliance Industries.

“I think that’s what’s being missed in the world today is the fact that we all should be focusing on emissions, not only the fuel source,” she said. “And if we focus on emissions, I think there is a way to continue the production of oil and gas for the foreseeable future.”

Hollub envisions decades more production rather than ending fossil fuel development in 10 or 20 years.

“We can continue to produce it if we will deal with the emissions from it, and we have the capability to do that,” she said. “And if the world could realize that, then I think it would also be an affordable transition. I don’t think the world can afford $200 to $300 trillion to pay for a transition that currently some people must drive too quickly.”

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In the past, such carbon capture methods have been met with some skepticism. Hollub acknowledged that “what’s happened in carbon capture has been spotty” but that track record can be addressed through consistent efforts to improve the technology.

She compared carbon capture to technology to the early days of the shale revolution, which developed and refined through multiple iterations over a period of years.

“We didn’t do it move by doing 10 wells. We didn’t do it drilling 20 wells. It took hundreds of wells and almost thousands of wells to get the technology to the point where it was repeatable and at a level where the revolution could take place and it could be done economically,” she said.

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She noted that Scott Kirby, CEO of United Airlines, doesn’t want to buy carbon credits but instead use oil that is generated by CO2 injection to reach carbon neutral.

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Hollub said that the world does not appear likely to achieve the climate goals it set in Paris in 2015. She partly blamed that on the exclusion of oil and gas companies from the COP26 U.N. climate change conference.

“I think that without much, much better collaboration, we’re not on the path to achieve two degrees,” she said. “Oil and gas companies were not allowed in any of the meeting at COP26.”

COP27 will include such companies, but she said that outspoken leaders in the climate debate are using “misinformation” about the transition.

“Too many, I would say, high profile people, just don’t know why they don’t have the right data,” she said.

Hollub said the climate crisis is a planetary crisis and fossil fuels companies should be part of the discussion.

“If we can’t pull together to fight this together then there’s something wrong with the world,” she said. “There’s something wrong with people who won’t be in the same room with an oil and gas company to talk about ‘how do we fight this together?’”

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I know there is a ton of skepticism over these sorts of project, and whether reducing carbon and methane outputs is even necessary to "combat climate change".

However, the politics of many nations, including here at home, over the past 20 years has the oil & gas and petrochemical industries, as well as other industries like papermills and potash, having to look at ways to reduce and even offset their emissions. It'll be interesting to see how these projects play out.

The hardcore enviro-Communists hate them, though, because it's seen as a way for the fossil fuel and chemical companies to keep operating and fuel world-wide economies in a feasible manner than helps them still meet the increased government/EPA regulations.