Oxy's Permian Basin carbon capture project has a news partner and the Astros are thinking about their climate goals. Rendering via 1pointfive.com

Houston-based energy company Occidental is capturing a ton of attention with its carbon capture initiative.

Occidental’s carbon capture subsidiary, 1PointFive, recently said it’s developing a carbon capture and sequestration hub on a 55,000-acre site along the Gulf Coast in Southeast Texas. The hub will be able to hold about 1.2 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide.

The Bluebonnet Hub, expected to be operating in 2026, will be located in Chambers, Liberty, and Jefferson counties near coastal refineries, chemical plants, and manufacturing facilities. Chambers County is the Houston metro area.

“This hub is located between two of the largest industrial corridors in Texas so captured CO2 can be efficiently transported and safely sequestered,” says Jeff Alvarez, president of sequestration at 1PointFive. “Rather than starting from scratch with individual capture and sequestration projects, companies can plug into this hub for access to shared carbon infrastructure.”

Home run on emissions

Another development at 1PointFive involves the Houston Astros baseball team.

The Astros recently agreed to buy CO2 removal credits from 1PointFive’s carbon capture plant being built in Ector County, whose county seat is Odessa. Under this deal, CO2 captured by the company’s equipment will be sequestered in underground saline reservoirs that aren’t affiliated with oil and gas production.

Over the next three years, the Astros will use the removal credits to help the team achieve a carbon-neutral footprint at Minute Maid Park.

“We remain committed to continuous improvement of our stadium for our fans, and purchasing carbon removal credits is an important investment for us,” Marcel Braithwaite, senior vice president of business operations for the Astros, says in a news release.

Progress in the Permian Basin

Furthermore, 1PointFive is making progress on its carbon capture plant being developed in West Texas’ Permian Basin. The company recently tapped Orlando, Florida-based Siemens Energy to supply two compressors for the plant, which is set to capture more than 500,000 metric tons of CO2 per year.

Vicki Hollub, president and CEO of Occidental, says in a news release that the Permian Basin plant will help meet the Paris Agreement’s Paris climate change goals and reduce global emissions.

The Permian Basin facility, with an estimated price tag of $800 million to $1 billion, is on track to open by late 2024.

Oxy is working on a direct air carbon capture facility in the Permian Basin — and is committing to up to a $1 billion price tag for the project. Rendering via 1pointfive.com

Houston oil and gas company reveals details on $1B carbon capture facility

seeing green

Ramping up its investment in clean energy, Houston-based Occidental Petroleum plans to spend up to $1 billion on a facility in the Permian Basin that will pull carbon dioxide from the air.

During a March 23 investor update, executives at Occidental laid out their strategy for developing direct air carbon capture plants and carbon sequestration hubs.

Executives said Occidental’s first direct air capture facility is set to be built in the Permian Basin, a massive oil-producing region in West Texas and southeastern New Mexico. The industrial-scale facility, with an estimated price tag of $800 million to $1 billion, is on track to open in late 2024. Construction is supposed to start later this year.

Occidental expects as many as 135 of its direct air carbon capture plants to be operating by 2035.

According to the International Energy Agency, direct air capture (DAC) technologies extract carbon dioxide, or CO2, directly from the atmosphere. The CO2 can be permanently stored in deep geological formations, or it can be used in food processing or can be combined with hydrogen to produce synthetic fuels.

As of November, 19 DAC facilities were operating around the world, according to the energy agency. Occidental envisions the Permian Basin plant pulling 1 million metric tons of CO2 from the air each year — an amount that would far exceed the combined capacity of the 19 facilities that already are online.

Aside from DAC facilities, Occidental plans to put three carbon sequestration hubs online by 2025. These hubs take carbon dioxide from the air and several other sources, such as factories and power plants, and then transport and store it using shared infrastructure, the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative explains.

Beyond the three locations already accounted for, several more Occidental sequestration hubs are in the works. Some of those sites will be in the Gulf Coast region.

During the investor presentation, Occidental President and CEO Vicki Hollub reiterated that she believes the company’s 1PointFive carbon capture initiative will ultimately create more value than its petrochemical business. The petrochemical unit generated $5.2 billion in revenue last year.

Hollub called carbon capture “a sure opportunity” for Occidental.

“There’s just not going to be enough other alternatives for CO2 offsets for corporate America and … corporations around the world,” Hollub said.

Occidental already is gaining value from DAC. For instance, aircraft manufacturer Airbus recently said it would buy 400,000 metric tons of carbon removal credits from Occidental’s first DAC facility over a four-year span.

Occidental is among numerous companies — including Houston energy heavyweights BP, ExxonMobil, and Shell — seeking to capitalize on the carbon capture and sequestration market. Fortune Business Insights forecasts the value of the global market will grow from $2 billion in 2021 to $7 billion by 2028.

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Axiom Space-tested cancer drug advances to clinical trials

mission critical

A cancer-fighting drug tested aboard several Axiom Space missions is moving forward to clinical trials.

Rebecsinib, which targets a cancer cloning and immune evasion gene, ADAR1, has received FDA approval to enter clinical trials under active Investigational New Drug (IND) status, according to a news release. The drug was tested aboard Axiom Mission 2 (Ax-2) and Axiom Mission 3 (Ax-3). It was developed by Aspera Biomedicine, led by Dr. Catriona Jamieson, director of the UC San Diego Sanford Stem Cell Institute (SSCI).

The San Diego-based Aspera team and Houston-based Axiom partnered to allow Rebecsinib to be tested in microgravity. Tumors have been shown to grow more rapidly in microgravity and even mimic how aggressive cancers can develop in patients.

“In terms of tumor growth, we see a doubling in growth of these little mini-tumors in just 10 days,” Jamieson explained in the release.

Rebecsinib took part in the patient-derived tumor organoid testing aboard the International Space Station. Similar testing is planned to continue on Axiom Station, the company's commercial space station that's currently under development.

Additionally, the drug will be tested aboard Ax-4 under its active IND status, which was targeted to launch June 25.

“We anticipate that this monumental mission will inform the expanded development of the first ADAR1 inhibitory cancer stem cell targeting drug for a broad array of cancers," Jamieson added.

According to Axiom, the milestone represents the potential for commercial space collaborations.

“We’re proud to work with Aspera Biomedicines and the UC San Diego Sanford Stem Cell Institute, as together we have achieved a historic milestone, and we’re even more excited for what’s to come,” Tejpaul Bhatia, the new CEO of Axiom Space, said in the release. “This is how we crack the code of the space economy – uniting public and private partners to turn microgravity into a launchpad for breakthroughs.”

Chevron enters the lithium market with major Texas land acquisition

to market

Chevron U.S.A., a subsidiary of Houston-based energy company Chevron, has taken its first big step toward establishing a commercial-scale lithium business.

Chevron acquired leaseholds totaling about 125,000 acres in Northeast Texas and southwest Arkansas from TerraVolta Resources and East Texas Natural Resources. The acreage contains a high amount of lithium, which Chevron plans to extract from brines produced from the subsurface.

Lithium-ion batteries are used in an array of technologies, such as smartwatches, e-bikes, pacemakers, and batteries for electric vehicles, according to Chevron. The International Energy Agency estimates lithium demand could grow more than 400 percent by 2040.

“This acquisition represents a strategic investment to support energy manufacturing and expand U.S.-based critical mineral supplies,” Jeff Gustavson, president of Chevron New Energies, said in a news release. “Establishing domestic and resilient lithium supply chains is essential not only to maintaining U.S. energy leadership but also to meeting the growing demand from customers.”

Rania Yacoub, corporate business development manager at Chevron New Energies, said that amid heightening demand, lithium is “one of the world’s most sought-after natural resources.”

“Chevron is looking to help meet that demand and drive U.S. energy competitiveness by sourcing lithium domestically,” Yacoub said.

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This article originally appeared on EnergyCapital.