Oil major Chevron has published details on its corporate blog about its Bayou Bend carbon storage project.
Carbon capture use and storage (CCUS) is considered a potential technology for mitigating climate change. Carbon dioxide can be captured directly from the atmosphere or from industrial sites with hard-to-abate emissions. It can then be utilised in other industries or transported for permanent storage, such as in depleted oil fields. This is where the Bayou Bend project comes in.
The joint venture includes TotalEnergies and Chevron, the makers of the Total and Texaco lubricant and coolant ranges, as well as Equinor of Norway. Southeast Texas was selected as a prime location because it has the right geology, skilled workforce, suitable infrastructure and diverse industries.
While the project focuses on US industries, decarbonisation is a global effort, as echoed by the vice president at Chevron for CCUS, Chris Powers:
“No one country, no one company, no one industry acting alone can meet the world’s energy and climate ambitions. Bayou Bend seeks to play a key role in supporting those goals. Our project is well-positioned to support multiple industries in their ambitions to lower carbon intensity…”
Chevron’s team has already drilled stratigraphic wells at 140,000 acres of offshore and onshore land to obtain vital data. It is now waiting for approval from the regulatory agency for a permit to inject carbon dioxide. Once this is secure, it can start designing and ultimately building the necessary facilities and related infrastructure to sequester carbon dioxide underground.
