ODESSA, Texas — Oxy and its subsidiary, 1PointFive, held a groundbreaking ceremony Friday for their planned carbon capture plant, Stratos, that is now under construction.
The site is about one hour outside of Odessa, and once finished, Stratos will be considered the world's largest direct air capture plant.
Stratos will remove up to 500,000 tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere a year.
“As we look at the scenarios drawn out by the IPCC, in addition to all the solar and renewable energy that they feel is important, in addition to not deforesting the planet, removing carbon from the atmosphere is really important,” said Michael Avery, president of 1PointFive.
Oxy and 1PointFive hope to not only lower the carbon footprint of the Permian Basin, but also provide new opportunities for their people.
“Oxy's got a very long history here in the Permian Basin," said Avery. "I think that, you know, we've got generations that are working for us, and really as we look into the future, being able to repurpose skillsets into new growth areas that are complementary to the energy business that we have is incredibly important.”
1PointFive said that the plant will begin capturing carbon by late 2024, and be commercially operational by 2025.