Forbes Piece: ExxonMobil Emphasizes Hydrogen, CCS In Low Carbon Solutions Spotlight

Darren Woods, Chairman and CEO of ExxonMobil, speaks during CERAWeek, an international energy conference, by S&P Global, in Houston, Texas on Monday, March 7, 2023. (Photo by Mark Felix / AFP) (Photo by MARK FELIX/AFP via Getty Images)

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[Note: This story was also published at Forbes.com]

During a session highlighting its Low Carbon Business Solutions (LCS) business unit Tuesday, executives from ExxonMobil highlighted major opportunities located in Texas and Louisiana in the unit’s current business plan, with a special focus on hydrogen and carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects along the Gulf Coast. The session coincided with the announcement of a deal with Linde to capture and store carbon emissions from Linde’s blue ammonia production facility in Beaumont, Texas.

Before getting into the discussion highlighting specific projects, company CEO Darren Woods emphasized the important role played by government policies to encourage the innovation and scaling-up of carbon reduction technologies. “Over a century of sustained economic and population growth has resulted in the world’s current level of greenhouse gas emissions,” Woods said. “Looking forward, getting on a path to net zero will require unprecedented innovation and collaboration among governments, companies, universities and others, something that is not happening today,” he added, pointing to the carbon reduction incentives and subsides contained in last year’s Inflation Reduction Act and the likely impacts they will have going forward, as illustrated in the chart below.

ExxonMobil chart illustrating role of government policies in encouraging carbon reduction solutions. EXXONMOBIL

Both Woods and Dan Ammann, President of the LCS unit, took care to emphasize the fact that the IRA and other U.S. policies have resulted in most of the company’s current set of opportunities being domestic in nature, in contrast to what they described as a more restrictive policy environment currently in place in Europe. It is well-known that, due to a variety of geological, policy and commercial factors, the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast region represents by far the largest potential prize where CCS is concerned.