Forbes Piece: ExxonMobil, Nucor Ink Big Carbon Capture Deal

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

Rolls of steel are stored outside the rolling facility and await shipment at the NUCOR Steel Gallatin plant, Wednesday, July 25, 2018, in Ghent, Ky. The plant is in operation 24 hours a day, seven days a week to meet demand. (AP Photo/Timothy D.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

ExxonMobilXOM, the largest U.S. domestic oil and gas company, and big steel-maker NucorNUE announced an agreement Thursday in which Exxon will capture carbon emissions from Nucor’s direct reduced iron (DRI) plant in Convent, Louisiana and permanently store it in underground reservoirs. For ExxonMobil, the deal is its third major carbon capture and storage (CCS) project announced in the last seven months as it advances its strategy for growing a portfolio of such projects along the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast.

“Our agreement with Nucor is the latest example of how we’re delivering on our mission to help accelerate the world's path to net zero and build a compelling new business,” Dan Ammann, president of ExxonMobil Low Carbon Solutions (LCS), said in the company’s release. “Momentum is building as customers recognize our ability to solve emission challenges at scale.”

Combined with Exxon’s previously-announced CCS agreements with CF Industries and Linde, the deal with Nucor will, when operational, enable the company’s Low Carbon Solutions business unit to transport and store 5 million metric tons per year (MTA) for third-party customers.

In an interview Thursday morning, Ammann pointed out that that magnitude of emissions is “the equivalent of changing 2 million gas powered cars to EVs, and that’s the total number of EVs that have been sold in the United States. That’s with just three projects across these heavy industries.”