據世界石油網站3月23日報道 沃倫·巴菲特支持的美國頁巖巨頭西方石油公司計劃到2035年在全世界建造70座碳捕獲工廠，每座工廠每年將直接從大氣中清除多達100萬噸的溫室氣體。

總部位于休斯敦的西方石油周三在向投資者介紹時表示，位于西得克薩斯州二疊紀盆地的第一座造價10億美元的所謂直接空氣捕捉工廠預計將于今年下半年開工，預計將于2024年底投營。

來自投資者的壓力越來越大，導致幾家主要石油生產商紛紛制定計劃，通過風電場和碳捕獲工廠等項目抵消其運營和生產化石燃料的部分排放，幫助減緩氣候變化。

西方石油表示，該工廠建成后，將成為世界上最大的DAC項目，每年將從大氣中清除約21.5萬輛汽車的同等排放。

西方石油今年還將投資1億美元，到2025年開發三個碳封存中心。該公司表示，今年有望為這些封存中心獲得超過10萬英畝的土地，包括墨西哥灣沿岸的多個封存地。

首席執行官維姬·霍盧布周三向投資者表示，她預計該公司的低碳業務最終將與其遺留化學品業務一樣大。

霍盧布表示：“企業和首席執行官們正在意識到，為了緩解全球氣候變化，我們現在采取措施是絕對必要的。這是一個明確的機會，也是一種我們可以將捕獲的二氧化碳永久儲存和保存在地下或通過產品的方式減少排放，也是實現可持續發展的途徑。”

王磊 摘譯自 世界石油

原文如下：

Occidental plans 70 plants to capture carbon from air by 2035

Occidental Petroleum Corp., the shale giant backed by Warren Buffett, plans to build 70 carbon capture facilities around the world by 2035 that will each remove as much as 1 million tons per year of the greenhouse gas directly from the atmosphere.

Construction on the first, $1 billion so-called direct air capture plant in the Permian Basin of West Texas is expected to start in the second half of this year, with its startup slated for late 2024, Houston-based Occidental said in a presentation to investors Wednesday. 

Mounting pressure from investors has led several major oil producers to lay out plans to help slow down climate change by offsetting some of the emissions from their operations and the fossil fuels they produce with projects like wind farms and carbon capture plants. 

When fully built, the plant billed as the world’s largest DAC project, will remove the equivalent of the emissions from about 215,000 cars from the atmosphere every year, Occidental said.

Occidental also is investing $100 million this year to develop three carbon sequestration hubs by 2025. The company said it’s on track to secure more than 100,000 net acres this year for these sequestration hubs, including for multiple sequestration sites on the Gulf Coast. 

Chief Executive Officer Vicki Hollub told investors Wednesday that she expects the company’s low carbon business will ultimately become as big as its legacy chemicals business. 

“Corporations and CEOs are realizing that for us to mitigate climate change in the world, it’s absolutely necessary that we take steps now,” Hollub said. “This is a sure opportunity and a way that we can definitively store and keep captured CO2 either underground or through products for forever, and it’s a path for others to make their path sustainable too.”