On Wednesday, ExxonMobil Corp. offered the lease of land to be a site for a capture and storage project of carbon emissions in bidding in the US Department of Interior auction.
The company would lease 500,000 acres off the Texas coast, some close to onshore infrastructure suitable for carbon capture activity. With a bid of USD15 million, the decision comes after Exxon faces pressure from investors to address climate change.
Previously, in April, the company floated an industry hub worth up to USD100 billion to collect planet-warming emissions from Gulf Coast petrochemical plants and bury them under the Gulf of Mexico.
If realized, this would be the first time an acreage of land is leased for purposes other than the extraction of oil and gas.
At the moment, Exxon plans to evaluate the acreage seismic and subsurface geology once final awards are determined.
Over the upcoming six years, the company has pledged USD15 billion on lower-carbon technologies. In two weeks, it will reveal the new details of emissions reduction and project spending.
