Use technology to address climate change, Oxy exec advises

Jan. 14, 2019
More oil and gas producers should be ready to use technology to address climate change instead of denying the problem exists, Occidental Petroleum Corp. Pres. and Chief Executive Officer Vicki A. Hollub recommended on Dec. 14.

More oil and gas producers should be ready to use technology to address climate change instead of denying the problem exists, Occidental Petroleum Corp. Pres. and Chief Executive Officer Vicki A. Hollub recommended on Dec. 14.

“We’ve been doing enhanced oil recovery for decades. When carbon dioxide is used to produce oil, the net emissions are 20% less than oil produced without EOR,” she said during an appearance at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, DC. “Now, we see an opportunity to become a leader in carbon capture and underground sequestration. We’re beginning to get CO2 from ethanol and other Midcontinent plants to inject into our formations.”

Oxy was one of the earliest US members of the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative, an organization of multinational oil companies that set stringent goals and take other positive steps to address climate change, Hollub said. When OGCI invested in a UK climate capture project recently, Oxy was the only US company that was involved, she noted.

Oxy also was part of a coalition to get the US Congress to pass and President Donald Trump to sign earlier this year the Section 45Q tax credit, which increased money available to companies ready to capture and store carbon emissions or use them for EOR. Hollub said the process provided a model for future climate collaboration within the industry.

“Without the credits Section 45Q provides, the industry would not have as many incentives,” she said. “There’s been a lot of talk about taxing carbon. If we can use incentives to advance technology, we’ll be that much farther ahead.”

Hollub also noted that the US Environmental Protection Agency’s recently issued sequestration requirements are a positive development. “I think more collaboration with EPA will help us reach our carbon reduction goals,” she said.

“It’s a difficult thing to talk about. But we’re sharing our strategy with everyone because we believe addressing climate change is essential if we’re going to have a sustainable business,” Hollub said.

She credited Stephen Chazen, her predecessor at Oxy, for buying holdings from several larger competitors that were leaving the Permian basin as well as a US Navy facility on the West Coast, which the company turned into an LNG export terminal that it subsequently sold.

“US energy dynamics are changing the world. The paradigms are changing. More companies are starting to address climate change,” Hollub said.