ExxonMobil is the latest supermajor to join the industrywide movement to eliminate or offset its operational emissions.
The largest oil company in the US said on 18 January that its ambition is to achieve a net-zero status by 2050. The effort is focused on ExxonMobil’s directly controlled and indirectly generated greenhouse-gas emissions, or what are known as Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions.
“We are developing comprehensive roadmaps to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions from our operated assets around the world, and where we are not the operator, we are working with our partners to achieve similar emission-reduction results,” Darren Woods, ExxonMobil CEO, said in a statement.
ExxonMobil reports that in 2020 its operations (based on its share of ownership of each asset) emitted 111 mtpa of greenhouse gas, down from 124 mtpa in 2016. Nearly half of its 2020 emissions were generated at the company’s chemical facilities, while upstream operations represented 22.3%.
To launch its net-zero initiative, ExxonMobil said it plans to invest more than $15 billion by 2027. The figure builds significantly upon a $3-billion spending plan it announced last year to develop carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects and other low-emissions technologies by 2025.
The expanded funding will further support ExxonMobil’s new low-carbon business unit along with more than 150 potential projects to lower emissions from its operated upstream, downstream, and chemical operations.
In the immediate term, next steps include improving on energy efficiency, methane emission mitigation, equipment upgrades, and the elimination of venting and routine flaring. ExxonMobil is also looking at power and steam co-generation, electrification, and using more renewable or lower-emissions power sources. A more comprehensive plan accounting for about 90% of its operational emissions will be completed by next year.
The newly announced plan follows one announced in December to lower the company’s emissions by 2030. This includes a net-zero Scope 1 and Scope 2 ambition for ExxonMobil’s operations in the Permian Basin. Spanning portions of Texas and New Mexico, the Permian represents about 40% of the company’s total oil and gas output.
ExxonMobil said plans to eliminate its emissions in the Permian include eliminating routine flaring by the end of this year, monitoring its methane emissions, and detecting methane leaks. The company also plans to end the use of all methane-bleeding pneumatic control devices, which are widely used across the US onshore sector.
As part of its low-carbon business unit, which was established last year, ExxonMobil is seeking to provide emissions reduction opportunities to customers through CCS projects, along with hydrogen and biofuel production.
The potential marquee project of this unit is the estimated $100-billion Houston CCS Innovation Zone, which proposes to capture emissions from petrochemical, manufacturing, and power facilities located along the Houston Ship Channel. The emissions are to be injected into offshore locations in the US Gulf of Mexico.
In November, ExxonMobil was the highest bidder on 94 shallow-water blocks in the Gulf of Mexico that have been widely speculated as potential CCS locations.
With an estimated price tag of at least $100 billion, the company is also seeking corporate partners and government funding for the large-scale CCS development that it says could store as much as 100 mtpa of CO2 by 2040. This compares to almost 13 mtpa of CO2 that is currently captured and permanently sequestered in the US, more than half of which is injected into the subsurface at ExxonMobil’s CCS site in LaBarge, Wyoming.
Additionally, ExxonMobil is calling for new government policies that will promote the Houston CCS hub and other CCS projects that have historically suffered from the lack of a scalable and profitable business model. To address this, the company is voicing its support for “an explicit price on carbon to establish market incentives and encourage investments in lower-emissions technologies.”
The decision by ExxonMobil follows those made by all other supermajors to align with the framework established by the Paris Agreement. However, most of the corporate ambitions announced so far have been criticized by climate activists for not including downstream operations or Scope 3 emissions, which account for the combustion of their hydrocarbon products.
