new hire

Houston private equity professional tapped to lead growth development at firm focused on decarbonization

Climate Investment announced Patrick Yip will lead the firm's growth investment strategy as managing director, head of growth. Photo via LinkedIn

A London-based energy transition investment firm has named a new Houston-based leader.

Climate Investment announced Patrick Yip will lead the firm's growth investment strategy as managing director, head of growth. In his new role, he will oversee the development of CI’s growth-stage portfolio, including deal sourcing, operational function of strategy, and working with the team that manages the firm's early-stage Catalyst program. He reports to the CEO, Pratima Rangarajan.

“We are excited to welcome Patrick to Climate Investment,” Rangarajan says in a news release. “The decarbonization investment opportunity continues to grow rapidly, and Patrick’s extensive experience will help us capitalize on that. He will also provide leadership and develop the market partnerships that will drive our growth investment strategy forward, playing a key role in supporting portfolio market adoption and accelerating the next stage of development for CI.”

Founded in 2016 by members of the Oil & Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI), CI grew its strategy last year to focus on more growth-stage opportunities so that its portfolio reflects both a maturing decarbonization pipeline as well as new technologies.

“Investing in Growth is a natural extension of our early-stage Catalyst strategy, enabling us to bring our experience and industry relationships to a wider range of companies that are poised for market expansion,” Rangarajan adds.

Yip, who will continue to be based in Houston, previously served as managing director for GEC, a Houston-based energy transition investment firm. He also previously worked at Halliburton on its mergers and acquisitions team. He has also held a number of private company Board positions within the energy transition sector.

According to the firm, it has facilitated over 136 market deployments from its portfolio companies’ technologies since it was founded less than a decade ago.

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A View From HETI

ExxonMobil Chairman and CEO Darren Woods said during the company’s recent second-quarter earnings call that the company is "concerned about the development of a broader market" for its low-carbon hydrogen plant in Baytown. Photo via exxonmobil.com

Spring-based ExxonMobil, the country’s largest oil and gas company, might delay or cancel what would be the world’s largest low-carbon hydrogen plant due to a significant change in federal law. The project carries a $7 billion price tag.

The Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act created a new 10-year incentive, the 45V tax credit, for production of clean hydrogen. But under President Trump’s "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," the window for starting construction of low-carbon hydrogen projects that qualify for the tax credit has narrowed. The Inflation Reduction Act mandated that construction start by 2033. But the Big Beautiful Bill switched the construction start time to early 2028.

“While our project can meet this timeline, we’re concerned about the development of a broader market, which is critical to transition from government incentives,” ExxonMobil Chairman and CEO Darren Woods said during the company’s recent second-quarter earnings call.

Woods said ExxonMobil is working to determine whether a combination of the 45Q tax credit for carbon capture projects and the revised 45V tax credit will help pave the way for a “broader” low-carbon hydrogen market.

“If we can’t see an eventual path to a market-driven business, we won’t move forward with the [Baytown] project,” Woods said.

“We knew that helping to establish a brand-new product and a brand-new market initially driven by government policy would not be easy or advance in a straight line,” he added.

Woods said ExxonMobil is trying to nail down sales contracts connected to the project, including exports of ammonia to Asia and Europe and sales of hydrogen in the U.S.

ExxonMobil announced in 2022 that it would build the low-carbon hydrogen plant at its refining and petrochemical complex in Baytown. The company has said the plant is slated to go online in 2027 and 2028.

As it stands now, ExxonMobil wants the Baytown plant to produce up to 1 billion cubic feet of hydrogen per day made from natural gas, and capture and store more than 98 percent of the associated carbon dioxide. The company has said the project could store as much as 10 million metric tons of CO2 per year.

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