Exxon predicts CCS market will reach $4 trillion in size by 2050

ExxonMobil believes the size of the global market for carbon capture and storage (CCS) could reach $4 trillion by the middle of this century, or 60% of the size of the oil and gas market by then, the company said in a presentation on April 19, according to Reuters.

Exxon recently drafted a new executive for its low carbon division to spearhead its campaign to commission and deliver more than 20 new CCS projects globally. Dan Ammann, former lead for General Motors' automated vehicle division, has been appointed to head the low carbon unit and will be tasked with deploying its $3bn CCS investment plan through until 2025. Ammann will take on his new remit on May 1, Reuters said.

Capturing carbon from industrial facilities or fuel combustion systems enables it to be transported to subterranean geological structures, including depleted oil and gas reservoirs, reducing CO2 emissions into the atmosphere. The technique is considered one of the biggest weapons at the disposal of IOCs to quickly offset and reduce carbon emissions. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says CCS will be crucial to head off the effects of global warming.

ExxonMobil's figures tally with earlier estimates from Occidental Petroleum. Occidental believes CCS could blossom into a $3-5 trillion market, providing turnover to rival its existing upstream oil and gas earnings. Occidental has said it will invest $800mn to $1bn on a CCS plant in the US Permian basin. Scheduled to launch in 2024, the facility is expected to become the world's largest direct air capture system, with a capacity of 1mn metric tons CO₂/yr.

Occidental's flagship decarbonisation project, using technology developed by Canada's Carbon Engineering, is supervised by a portfolio company backed by its venture capital division. It has been racking up significant carbon credit commitments from major enterprises in recent months. E-commerce software provider Shopify agreed to purchase 10,000 mt of CO₂ removal on March 7, while Airbus signed up to buy 400,000 mt on March 17.

ExxonMobil's CCS investment plan focuses on achieving a global reach. On April 14, it said it would undertake pre-FEED studies on an up to 2mn mt/yr in South East Australia's Gippsland Basin. The US oil major claims it currently has a 20% equity share in global CO² capture capacity.