Oxy Scores with Houston Texans to Reduce Team’s Carbon Emissions

The NFL’s Houston Texans have signed a unit of Occidental Petroleum Corp. to address and reduce carbon emissions for team air travel over the next three seasons.

Oxy, as it is known, said its affiliate 1PointFive reached an agreement and sponsorship with the team to help offset carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions for air travel to regular season off-season games.

Texans agreed to purchase CO2 removal credits from 1PointFive’s first Direct Air Capture (DAC) plant. The DAC-1 plant, under construction in the Permian Basin of West Texas, will go up in late 2024. DAC captures and removes CO2 directly from the atmosphere, with the emissions reused or stored deep underground in geological formations.

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Oxy spokesman William Peterson told NGI that DAC “offers a practical and cost-effective solution to reduce emissions associated with hard-to-decarbonize activities such as air travel.

“We are working to provide practical decarbonisation solutions at scale for a number of industries such as aviation, marine, industrial emitters and committed net zero companies. Due to frequent air travel, DAC is particularly well suited to handle broadcasts from sports teams and leagues.

Under the Texans’ deal, the captured CO2 will be sequestered in saline reservoirs unrelated to Oxy’s oil and gas production.

The front-end engineering and design (FEED) phase of DAC-1 in the Permian is underway. Once operational, the project can capture up to 500,000 metric tons/year of CO2, with the ability to scale up to 1 million metric tons/year (mmty).

1PointFive is deploying decarbonisation solutions, including Carbon Engineering Ltd’s DAC and Air to Fuels technologies. based in Calgary.

Through the sponsorship, 1PointFive would become the Texans’ “Preferred Carbon Removal Partner” and work with the team to educate fans about DAC and the importance of carbon removal.

“We are excited to work with the Houston Texans and their purchase of carbon removal credits enabled by direct air capture,” said 1PointFive President Michael Avery. “We believe that direct air capture is an efficient way to help reduce an organization’s carbon footprint and provides a solution that is particularly well-suited to addressing the carbon emissions associated with air travel.”

Jerry Angel of the Texans, vice president of Corporate Development, welcomed the emissions deal. “Together with 1PointFive, we will strive to make a difference throughout our community,” he said. Financial details have not been disclosed.

According to Peterson, Oxy “is currently working on site preparation activities for DAC-1 and road construction for the project. Work is progressing well and on schedule.”

Carbon Engineering has also begun FEED operations for DAC facilities “at a second location in the US, in Kleberg County, TX, at King Ranch,” Peterson said. Each DAC plant in the King Ranch leased area is expected to be able to remove up to 1 mmty of CO2, “giving a total capacity of up to 30 mmty when all facilities are operational.”

Oxy has about 6 billion tons of CO2 sequestration potential through five proposed facilities in Texas and Louisiana. Oxy and Western Midstream Partners LP have a preliminary agreement to explore CO2 capture projects in the Permian as well as Colorado’s Denver-Julesburg Basin. In addition, Enbridge Inc. and Oxy in December said they were in the early stages of developing a carbon capture center in the Corpus Christi area of ​​South Texas.