Exxon floats CCS project for Gulf of Mexico

London (Quantum Commodity Intelliegence) - Exxon Mobil has proposed creating a huge carbon capture and storage (CCS) project in the Gulf of Mexico, backed by public and private investment, according to media reports.

The plan would require "$100 billion or more" from companies and government agencies to store 50 million metric tons of carbon dioxide by 2030, with capacity potentially doubling by 2040, Joe Blommaert, president of Exxon's Low Carbon Solutions business, said in an interview.

Houston has a large concentration of "hard-to-decarbonize" industry near the Gulf, said Blommaert.

"We could create an economy of scale where we can reduce the cost of the carbon dioxide mitigation, create jobs and reduce the emissions," he said.

In Europe, plans to develop carbon capture and storage in the North Sea are already underway.

In October 2020, the Norwegian government proposed to invest around $1.8 billion in the Northern Lights CCS project, the country's first full-scale offshore CCS facility, which is scheduled for commissioning in 2024.

In the UK, the government is investing £200 million into four CCS hubs, deploying two clusters by the mid-2020s and another two by 2030, and with a goal for them to store 10 million tons of carbon dio0xide emissions by 2030.