Chevron, Talos to triple the size of Texas carbon capture project

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Oil producers Chevron Corp and Talos Energy Inc on Monday said they have tripled the size of a proposed carbon capture and storage hub for the Gulf Coast, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Their joint venture, which includes Carbonvert Inc, plans to collect and bury greenhouse gases from clients in the petrochemical, cement, steel and other industrial businesses along the Texas coast. The cost of the acquisition was not disclosed.

The so-called Bayou Bend hub is one of Chevron's top global bets for carbon capture, utilization and sequestration (CCUS), a potentially multi-trillion dollar market by 2050. "The market is huge," Chevron's vice president for CCUS, Chris Powers, told reporters at the CERAWeek energy conference by S&P. "In order to meet the ambitions of the Paris Agreement, we are going to do CCUS at massive scale, with multiple hubs like this."

The first injection is expected for around 2026. Timing will depend on the regulatory process and clients needs, said Robin Fielder, chief sustainability officer for Talos. The group will start to seek long-term customers, including those looking to use CCUS associated with hydrogen production, the executives said.

The venture added nearly 100,000 onshore acres (405 square kilometers) to its existing 40,000 acre site. The expanded area could store more than 1 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases. The trio said the deal positions their Bayou Bend hub as a storage site for carbon emitted by hard to abate industries in the region, one of the largest industrial corridors in the United States.

Chevron is investing USD10 billion through 2028 in its Low Carbon ventures including CCUS and hydrogen fuel. The company is investing in technologies to allow hydrogen transportation, including through ammonia, the company's vice president of hydrogen Austin Knight said during the conference.

While technology for hydrogen production already exists, for transportation in a large scale the technology is still in the early stages, he said.

We remind, Chevron Corp. posted a record USD36.5 bn profit for 2022 that was more than double year-earlier earnings but fell shy of Wall Street estimates, undercut by an asset writedowns and a retreat in oil and gas prices.
The second largest U.S. oil producer's adjusted net profit for 2022 beat by about USD10 billion its previous record set in 2011. But USD1.1 B in writedowns in its international oil and gas operations in the fourth quarter left earnings short of forecasts for adjusted net profit of USD37.2 B.

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Arafura Rare Earths has entered into an agreement for the supply of the sulfuric acid plant for its 100% owned Nolans NeodymiumPraseodymium (NdPr) Project in the Northern Territory, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The sulfuric acid plant will be supplied by Chemetics Inc. a global supplier of sulfuric acid and other specialty chemical facilities, a wholly owned subsidiary of Worley. The sulfuric acid plant for Nolans will utilize Chemetics proprietary CORE-SO2 process which significantly reduces capital cost, maintenance cost and sulfur dioxide emissions from the plant.

The Chemetics plant is also significantly smaller than a traditional sulfur burning acid plant allowing increased use of modularization reducing the volume of site installation labor. These savings were incorporated into the recent Nolans project update. The initial work package includes finalization of specifications and engineering design to allow the plant to be incorporated into the overall project design.

Arafura’s General Manager Projects, Stewart Watkins, said, “Letting the contract for the supply of the acid plant to a global supplier such as Chemetics provides confidence around the outcomes for the Project when the team reaches commissioning. Along with that, the progress made on the selection of our key vendors and placement of long lead orders means that we are set to commence early works construction in the coming weeks."

As well as the sulfuric acid plant, the Company has also placed several other the orders during recent weeks which are on the critical path for the project, including:

Sulfation bakes and cooler paddle dryers with ANDRITZ, primarily to secure detailed design and long lead materials for fabrication.
Pipe supply for the first 8 km of HDPE piping for the main water supply pipeline from the borefield to the plant site, which is required for early construction works.
Potable and wastewater treatment plants for the construction camp.
Equipment and tankage for temporary construction water supply in advance of the pipeline being installed to site.

We remind, WeylChem Group of Companies, owned by International Chemicals Investors Group (ICIG), has bought Ineos Sulphur Chemicals Spain SLU, a sulfuric acid manufacturer in Spain, from Ineos. With the deal, WeylChem Group has strengthened its footprint as one of the leading players in the European sulfur chemicals market. The acquired business' facility in Bilbao has a production capacity of 350,000 tonnes/y of sulfuric acid, resulted from sulfur burning. It also manufactures oleum and molten sulfur. In the future, the firm will be known as WeylChem Bilbao SLU. WeylChem Bilbao, together with the French operations at WeylChem Lamotte, will have a strong combined distribution, logistics and sales framework.

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Claudio Descalzi, Eni Chief Executive Officer, and his Excellency Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and ADNOC Managing Director and Group CEO, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which outlines a framework of cooperation for future joint projects on energy transition, sustainability and decarbonization, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The MoU was signed in the presence of the President of the Council of Ministers, Giorgia Meloni, and His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates.

Through this agreement, Eni and ADNOC will explore potential opportunities in the areas of renewable energy, blue and green hydrogen, carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS), in the reduction of greenhouse gas and methane gas emissions, energy efficiency, routine gas flaring reduction and the Global Methane Pledge, to support global energy security and a sustainable energy transition. In addition, they will evaluate areas of cooperation for sustainable development and promoting the spread of a culture of sustainability within the energy industry and its stakeholders.

Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi commented: “This agreement leverages the strategic relationship that Eni and ADNOC developed over the years, to strengthen our cooperation for decarbonization and for a just energy transition. It comes at a crucial time, in a difficult international juncture and in view of the upcoming COP28, where the UAE, as hosting country, are expected to set out their vision for a clean energy transition agenda."

Eni has been present in Abu Dhabi since 2018. With significant capital projects portfolio in UAE, Eni is one of the main international companies in the country.

We remind, Eni S.p.A. reported its fourth-quarter and full-year earnings results, revealing its net profit annually tumbled 84% to EUR550 million, or diluted earnings per share of EUR0.97. The company's adjusted operating profit remained mostly unchanged in the same period at EUR3.8 billion. In 2022, both Eni's net and operating profit more than doubled versus a year earlier to reach record EUR13.81 billion and EUR20.39 billion, respectively.

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Siemens Energy compressors will be used at Occidental’s first large-scale Direct Air Capture (DAC) plant in Texas’ Permian Basin developed by 1PointFive, a subsidiary of Occidental, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The two compressor packages will enable the plant to capture up to 500,000 metric tons of CO2 per year when fully operational. The announcement was made today by Siemens Energy President and CEO Christian Bruch and Occidental President and CEO Vicki Hollub at the 41st annual CERAWeek energy conference hosted in Houston, TX, USA.

Siemens Energy will supply a motor-driven 13,000 horsepower (hp) fully modular wet gas compressor package and a motor-driven 8,500 hp dry gas compressor for the DAC plant. The equipment will compress the captured CO2 for additional processing and pressurize the final product into a pipeline for injection into underground reservoirs.

1PointFive’s plant is expected to provide practical solutions that hard-to-decarbonize industries can use to help achieve net zero. Captured carbon dioxide can be safely sequestered deep underground in saline formations or used to produce hydrocarbons to enable lower-carbon or net-zero transportation fuels and in products like chemicals and building materials.

We remind, Occidental said its first large-scale direct-air-capture (DAC) plant will be postponed to mid-2025, after previously targeting a late 2024 commencement. The announcement was made during its 2022 Q4 earnings call on 27 February. In October 2022, Occidental and its subsidiary signed a lease agreement in south Texas that would allow it to build enough DAC plants to extract up to 3bn tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere, the US-based energy producer said.

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- SABIC participated in a ceremony to announce the first package of Shareek projects involving large companies in Saudi Arabia, said the company.

The event was held in the presence of several dignitaries, senior businessmen and heads of major companies participating in the program.

During the ceremony, SABIC announced a strategic project to manufacture catalysts, aiming to transform Saudi Arabia into a manufacturing hub for specialized materials in line with the national industrial strategy. The project will contribute to industrial advancements as envisioned in Saudi Vision 2030, including improving competitiveness of the energy sector, developing industries associated with the oil-and-gas industries, and raising the level of local content in this area.

SABIC’s strategy for manufacturing catalysts is based on knowledge acquisition, applying the latest technologies and making improvements to them before localization. To this end, SABIC has set a two-stage approach. The first is to fully acquire Scientific Design, which was done last year, and secure a key catalyst used by SABIC for the glycol manufacturing. The second is to take the first phase forward with three new plants for the catalysts used in the manufacture of polymers and chemicals. Moreover, SABIC is collaborating with Shareek to identify the most important enablers and drivers to build the catalyst industry in the Kingdom.

In November 2022, SABIC and Saudi Aramco signed another initial agreement with Polish refining firm PKN Orlen to explore the potential of joint investments in petrochemical projects in Poland and other European markets. During the same month, the firm also announced that it is intending to set up a plant to convert crude oil into petrochemicals, capitalizing on growing demand.

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