Exxon has secured over 271,000 acres of land in Texas waters to capture CO2 offshore

Exxon Mobil announced on Thursday that it had acquired state leases covering over 271,000 acres of Texas state waters to conduct an offshore CO2 capture operation.

Exxon won the lease from the Texas General Land Office after it bid in 2021 for federal land near the Texas coast to capture CO2, and then emerged as the highest bidder in 2023 for 69 blocks of shallow water in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, in order to expand its carbon storage area.

Oil companies such as Chevron and Occidental Petroleum have adopted carbon capture, a method of storing CO2 underground generated by industrial activity, to reduce environmental emissions and combat climate change.

ExxonMobil Low Carbon Solutions president Dan Ammann said, "Our growing list of customers is ready to deploy carbon capture and storage (CCS). We'll drive substantial emission reductions along Gulf Coast."

The company didn't disclose the length or financial terms of lease.

The terms of the lease were not immediately provided by a spokesperson for Texas Land commissioner, Dawn Buckingham. (Reporting and editing by Vijay Kishore in Bengaluru, with Pooja Menon reporting from Bengaluru)

(source: Reuters)