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Exxon bets carbon will be the new oil

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Re: Exxon bets carbon will be the new oil

#11

Post by azinman2 »

throwaway33381 wrote: post #9
luhn wrote: post #4

> Exxon’s vision is that eventually these pipelines will ferry CO2 captured from industrial point sources like cement and steel plants, and potentially from natural gas power plants, and transport it to underground rock formations or old oil wells where it could be buried (Denbury also owns a number of large sites for carbon sequestration). Color me skeptical. The article offers no supporting evidence that this is Ex…

It sounds more like an excuse to continue to output oil while doing absolutely nothing to stop the further degradation of out environment.

It shouldn’t be a surprise. They’re an oil and gas company, with gigantic investments in that space, a culture that supports it, knowledge to do it, politics solved for it, and a crap ton of inertia.

The expectation that they’d pivot is far less likely than likely. This isn’t a sector known for disruption outside of new ways to extract.

Re: Exxon bets carbon will be the new oil

#14

Post by jimlongton »

throwaway33381 wrote: post #9
luhn wrote: post #4

> Exxon’s vision is that eventually these pipelines will ferry CO2 captured from industrial point sources like cement and steel plants, and potentially from natural gas power plants, and transport it to underground rock formations or old oil wells where it could be buried (Denbury also owns a number of large sites for carbon sequestration). Color me skeptical. The article offers no supporting evidence that this is Ex…

It sounds more like an excuse to continue to output oil while doing absolutely nothing to stop the further degradation of out environment.

Related: Revealed: Exxon made ‘breathtakingly’ accurate climate predictions in 1970s and 80s

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/jan/12/exxon-clima...

Re: Exxon bets carbon will be the new oil

#15

Post by toss1 »

luhn wrote: post #4

> Exxon’s vision is that eventually these pipelines will ferry CO2 captured from industrial point sources like cement and steel plants, and potentially from natural gas power plants, and transport it to underground rock formations or old oil wells where it could be buried (Denbury also owns a number of large sites for carbon sequestration). Color me skeptical. The article offers no supporting evidence that this is Ex…

I also seriously question the concept of massive investment in CO2 dumping/sequestration alone, as it seems more likely that CO2 will be used as a feedstock to generate more complex and useful molecules.

That said, the endpoints of the pipelines could just route to processing plants instead of underground carbon sinks, so the pipeline part could be valid, if appropriately structured.

Re: Exxon bets carbon will be the new oil

#16

Post by tourmalinetaco »

chmod600 wrote: post #7
photochemsyn wrote: post #3

The real rationale is a few paragraphs down: > "For now, Denbury’s pipeline network isn’t really low carbon, but instead will function as an extension of Exxon’s normal oil business. Today the CO2 carried in the pipelines is used for “enhanced oil recovery,” a process in which it is injected into oil wells to push out the last few drops." All the DOE-funded 'clean coal' and similar CCS schemes were all conveniently s…

“capturing and burying 100% of the carbon” What about 50%? Does the cost go up as you try to capture a larger percentage?

From my understanding the cost is in the technology and energy required. Essentially, you burn more fossil fuels trying to inject it at any level than the carbon you put in. And something like this couldn’t be run on renewables as is, you’d need a rather large amount of batteries which is so incredibly expensive at this point in time.

So cost and carbon output make geological sequestration impractical. However, when used for “enhanced oil extraction”, it easily covers the costs and carbon output worries. They wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t profitable, and despite the article’s claims they are not in the business of carbon neutrality.

Re: Exxon bets carbon will be the new oil

#17

Post by kdamica »

I would bet that this is not going to happen unless someone finds an industrial use for all that carbon. I’m not an expert but it seems like it would be much more efficient to invest in low carbon energy and manufacturing tech than to build a ton of infrastructure for sequestration.

Re: Exxon bets carbon will be the new oil

#19

Post by ckrapu »

When I think about carbon extraction and storage, I get the same feeling as when I read about the ancients discovering oil seeps and surface deposits of hydrocarbons.

They knew that they could be harnessed for keeping fires lit and even sometimes associated them with the supernatural. They just lacked the tech and industrial background to use them.

We know that carbon is essential for life and if we ever engineer useful organisms to build structures or produce macroscale goods (as opposed to pharmaceuticals or food), then clearly carbon will be one of the main limiting factors, along with energy and water. It just feels like we will one day look back at this and think “why didn’t we just try to use it instead of burying it?”

Re: Exxon bets carbon will be the new oil

#20

Post by ckrapu »

kdamica wrote: post #17

I would bet that this is not going to happen unless someone finds an industrial use for all that carbon. I’m not an expert but it seems like it would be much more efficient to invest in low carbon energy and manufacturing tech than to build a ton of infrastructure for sequestration.

If the story of Earth were a novel and the current chapter introduced both global warming and the advent of carbon-based manufacturing, it would almost feel too contrived of a setup.
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