ExxonMobil names new partner to bolster US lithium supply chain with offtake agreement

ev supplies en route

LG Chem’s Tennessee cathode plant, which began construction in December 2023, is designed for an annual production capacity of 60,000 tons and provides strategic geographic access for customer deliveries and raw material imports. Rendering via ExxonMobil

Spring-headquartered ExxonMobil Corp. has announced a new MOU for an offtake agreement for up to 100,000 metric tons of lithium carbonate.

The agreement is with LG Chem, which is building its cathode plant in Tennessee and expects it to be the largest of its kind in the country. The project broke ground a year ago and expects an annual production capacity of 60,000 tons. The lithium will be supplied by ExxonMobil.

“America needs secure domestic supply of critical minerals like lithium,” Dan Ammann, president of ExxonMobil Low Carbon Solutions, says in a news release. “ExxonMobil is proud to lead the way in establishing domestic lithium production, creating jobs, driving economic growth, and enhancing energy security here in the United States.”

The industry currently has a lithium supply shortage due to the material's use in electric vehicle batteries and the fact that most of production happens overseas.

“Building a lithium supply chain with ExxonMobil, one of the world’s largest energy companies, holds great significance,” Shin Hak-cheol, CEO of LG Chem, adds. “We will continue to strengthen LG Chem’s competitiveness in the global supply chain for critical minerals.”

Per the release, the final investment decision is still pending.

Earlier this year, Exxon entered into another energy transition partnership, teaming up with Japan’s Mitsubishi to potentially produce low-carbon ammonia and nearly carbon-free hydrogen at ExxonMobil’s facility in Baytown.

Last month, the company announced it had signed the biggest offshore carbon dioxide storage lease in the U.S. ExxonMobil says the more than 271,000-acre site, being leased from the Texas General Land Office, complements the onshore CO2 storage portfolio that it’s assembling.

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The offshore site is adjacent to a CO2 pipeline network that ExxonMobil acquired in 2023 with its $4.9 billion purchase of Plano-based Denbury Resources. Photo via ExxonMobil.com

ExxonMobil signs biggest offshore CCS lease in the U.S.

big deal

Spring-based ExxonMobil continues to ramp up its carbon capture and storage business with a new offshore lease and a new CCS customer.

On October 10, ExxonMobil announced it had signed the biggest offshore carbon dioxide storage lease in the U.S. ExxonMobil says the more than 271,000-acre site, being leased from the Texas General Land Office, complements the onshore CO2 storage portfolio that it’s assembling.

“This is yet another sign of our commitment to CCS and the strides we’ve been able to make,” Dan Ammann, president of ExxonMobil Low Carbon Solutions, says in a news release.

The offshore site is adjacent to a CO2 pipeline network that ExxonMobil acquired in 2023 with its $4.9 billion purchase of Plano-based Denbury Resources.

Ammann told Forbes that when it comes to available acreage in the Gulf Coast, this site is “the largest and most attractive from a geological point of view.”

The initial customer for the newly purchased site will be Northbrook, Illinois-based CF Industries, Forbes reported.

This summer, ExxonMobil sealed a deal to remove up to 500,000 metric tons of CO2 each year from CF’s nitrogen plant in Yazoo City, Mississippi. CF has earmarked about $100 million to build a CO2 dehydration and compression unit at the plant.

A couple of days before the lease announcement, Ammann said in a LinkedIn post that ExxonMobil had agreed to transport and annually store up to 1.2 metric tons of CO2 from the $1.6 billion New Generation Gas Gathering (NG3) pipeline project in Louisiana. Houston-based Momentum Midstream is developing NG3, which will collect and treat natural gas produced in Texas and Louisiana and deliver it to Gulf Coast markets.

This is ExxonMobil’s first CCS deal with a natural gas processor and fifth CCS deal agreement overall. To date, ExxonMobil has contracts in place for storage of up to 6.7 metric tons of CO2 per year.

“I’m proud that even more industries are choosing our #CCS solutions to meet their emissions reduction goals,” Ammann wrote on LinkedIn.

ExxonMobil says it operates the largest CO2 pipeline network in the U.S.

“The most fundamental thing we’re focused on is making sure the CO2 is stored safely and securely,” Ammann told Forbes in addressing fears that captured CO2 could seep back into the atmosphere.

The facility, once completed, will be able to produce 165 kilo tons per Annum of hydrogen and 5,000 metric tons per day of ammonia. Photo via Getty Images

Houston company scores agreement to work on Canadian green hydrogen project

contract secured

Houston-headquartered McDermott has reported that it secured an agreement to work on Canada's first commercial green hydrogen and ammonia production facility.

The Early Contractor Involvement agreement is from Abraxas Power Corp. to work on the Exploits Valley Renewable Energy Corporation (EVREC) project located in Central Newfoundland and will include developing a wind farm with up to 530 turbines that will have the ability to generate 3.5 gigawatts of electricity and 150 megawatts solar photo voltaic. Additionally, the facility, once completed, will be able to produce 165 kilo tons per Annum of hydrogen and 5,000 metric tons per day of ammonia.

"The agreement is testament to McDermott's industry-leading delivery and installation expertise, and the breadth of our capabilities across the energy transition," Rob Shaul, McDermott's senior vice president, Low Carbon Solutions, says in a news release. "Our century of experience, from concept to completion, and integrated delivery model, means we can offer Abraxas a repeatable modular implementation solution that is expected to drive cost savings, reduce risk and provide quality assurance."

Per the agreement, the company will provide front-end engineering design, engineering, procurement, and construction execution planning services, and more for the project. According to McDermott, the company's contribution to the project will be led from McDermott's Houston office with support from its office in India.

Recently, another collaboration McDermott is working on reached a new milestone. Houston-based Element Fuels has completed the pre-construction phase of its hydrogen-powered clean fuels refinery and combined-cycle power plant in the Port of Brownsville. McDermott is providing front-end engineering design services for the project.

In October, McDermott announced that it signed a lighthouse agreement with United Kingdom-based industrial software company AVEVA and Massachusetts-based product lifecycle management platform provider Aras. With the new software, McDermott plans "to develop its asset lifecycle management capability across the energy transition, oil and gas, and nuclear sectors," per the news release.

The rig stands 225 feet tall and extends 8,000 feet below the subsurface. Photo via exxonmobil.com

ExxonMobil breaks ground on Texas carbon dioxide storage project

digging in

ExxonMobil announced this month that it has officially broken ground on a groundbreaking carbon dioxide storage site.

According to a release from the company, a new rig is currently being used to gather information about an underground site in Southeast Texas. The rig stands 225 feet tall, but more importantly extends 8,000 feet below the subsurface to investigate if the site is a safe place to store carbon underground.

“Everyone’s excited about this appraisal well because we’re literally breaking ground on a new chapter of our work to help reduce industrial emissions,” Joe Colletti, who oversees carbon capture and storage development along the Gulf Coast for Exxon, says in a statement.

Exxon plans to move the rig to other sites in the Gulf Coast in the future for clients Nucor Corp., CF Industries and Linde.

In the last year, Exxon has made agreements with these regional companies to store carbon captured from their operations.

Exxon agreed to transport and permanently store up to 2.2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide each year from Linde’s hydrogen production facility in Beaumont, Texas when it launches in 2025.
Exxon agreed to store up to 2 million metric tons per year of CO2 captured from CF Industries’ ammonia plant in Donaldsonville, Louisiana, starting in 2025.
Exxon agreed to capture, transport and store up to 800,000 metric tons per year of CO2 from Nucor’s direct reduced iron manufacturing site in Convent, Louisiana starting in 2026.

Together, the three agreements represent a total of 5 million metric tons per year that Exxon plans to transport and store for third-party customers.

“Our agreement with Nucor is the latest example of how we’re delivering on our mission to help accelerate the world's path to net zero and build a compelling new business,” Dan Ammann, president of ExxonMobil Low Carbon Solutions, says in a statement over the summer. “Momentum is building as customers recognize our ability to solve emission challenges at scale.”

In addition to the carbon storage agreements, the energy giant also completed the acquisition of Denbury Inc. this month in an all-stock transaction valued at $4.9 billion. The deal adds more than 1,300 miles, including nearly 925 miles of CO2 pipelines in Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi to Exxon's CO2 pipeline network.

The deal was first announced this summer.

Through an acquisition, Equinor has joined a joint venture carbon capture and storage project in southeast Texas. Image via Getty Images

Equinor buys into massive CCS joint venture project near Houston

M&A Moves

A Norwegian energy company with its United States headquarters in Houston has announced it has acquired a significant chunk of a carbon capture and storage joint venture.

Equinor now owns a 25 percent interest in Bayou Bend CCS LLC, which is reported to be one of the largest domestic carbon capture and storage projects. The project — a JV between Chevron, Talos Energy Inc., and now Equinor, is located along the Gulf Coast in southeast Texas. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“Commercial CCS solutions are critical for hard-to-abate industries to meet their climate ambitions while maintaining their activity," Grete Tveit, senior vice president for Low Carbon Solutions in Equinor, says in a news release. "Entering Bayou Bend strengthens our low carbon solutions portfolio and supports our ambition to mature and develop 15-30 million tonnes of equity CO2 transport and storage capacity per year by 2035. Our experience from developing carbon storage projects can help advance decarbonization efforts in one of the largest industrial corridors in the US."

According to Equinor, it purchased its share through the acquisition of Carbonvert's subsidiary, Texas Carbon 1 LLC. Chevron, the operator, holds 50 percent interest, and Talos holds the other 25 percent interest.

“We look forward to working together with our partners to further mature this exciting project. Bayou Bend is Equinor’s first announced low carbon solutions project on the Gulf Coast. Alongside our upstream production and offshore wind developments, we’re strengthening our position as a broad energy company and expanding our footprint in the Gulf region,” Chris Golden, senior vice president and US Country Manager, says in the release. "Bayou Bend is a significant milestone towards growing our low carbon portfolio in the US.”

With about 140,000 gross acres of pore space for permanent CO2 sequestration and over one billion metric tons of gross potential storage resources, according to the release, Bayou Bend is positioned to be one of the largest CCS solutions in the US for industrial emitters.The project spans around 100,000 gross acres across Chambers and Jefferson Counties in southeast Texas, and approximately 40,000 gross acres offshore Beaumont and Port Arthur.

“Delivering lower carbon solutions to harder-to-abate industries is fundamental to Chevron New Energies’ mission, and as a Southeast Texas native, I know how vital these industries are to our local communities and their economies,” Chris Powers, vice president of CCUS at Chevron New Energies, in the release. “We thank Carbonvert for its work on the project, and we look forward to Equinor bringing its expertise and resources to Bayou Bend as it joins the partnership.”

Each of the company's low-carbon innovation arms — Low Carbon Solutions at Equinor, Chevron New Energies division, and Talos Low Carbon Solutions division — are collaborating on the project.

“We continue to make significant progress in developing Bayou Bend, which we believe will be a premier regional carbon storage hub solution for Texas’ largest industrial region. Equinor is a welcomed addition to the partnership. Their experience and track record further enhance the joint venture, which is committed to developing safe, reliable, cost-effective lower carbon solutions while enabling continued economic growth,” said Robin Fielder, executive vice president – Low Carbon Strategy and Chief Sustainability Officer of Talos.

In 2021, Texas General Land Office in Jefferson County, Texas, selected Talos and Carbonvert for the carbon storage lease, located in state waters offshore Beaumont and Port Arthur, Texas. Chevron joined the JV in May 2022. The project expanded earlier this year.

The project is located in southeast Texas, about 70 miles outside of Houston. Image via equinor.com

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Houston cleantech startup secures $134M to develop ‘superhot’ geothermal plant

deep round

Houston-based Quaise Energy, a producer of utility-scale geothermal power, raised $134 million in a Series B round to advance its “superhot” geothermal power plant.

Climate-focused San Francisco-based investment firm Prelude Ventures led the round, with participation from JERA Co., Japan’s largest power generation company, and Idemitsu Kosan, one of Japan’s largest energy companies. Nearly all existing investors, including cleantech-focused investment firm Safar Partners, participated in the round.

“We have backed Quaise since the beginning because we believed accessing superhot rock would unlock geothermal energy at a scale the world has never seen,” Mark Cupta, managing director at Prelude Ventures, said in a press release.

The startup expects more equity and debt deals to close “imminently.” Quaise has raised $230 million since its founding in 2018.

Quaise says some of the fresh funding will go toward building the world’s first commercial-scale “superhot” geothermal power plant —Project Obsidian in central Oregon. In addition, Quaise is earmarking money for continued development and commercialization of its millimeter-wave drilling system toward depths exceeding 5 kilometers (about 16,400 feet).

Quaise uses a millimeter-wave drilling system developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to remove rock at depths and temperatures that aren’t economically feasible with conventional drilling. With this technology, Quaise can reach rock at temperatures of around 570 degrees to 930 degrees in most places worldwide, enabling construction of geothermal systems that rival fossil fuels and nuclear energy in power density and that rival renewables in cost.

“Our ambition is to power civilization with Earth's most compelling energy source. This round takes us from field-proven technology to first commercial revenues,” Carlos Araque, co-founder, president and CEO of Quaise, added in the release.

Quaise has demonstrated the capability of its millimeter-wave drilling system at its Central Texas test site, drilling more than about 330 feet through granite in 2025—the first time the technology penetrated basement rock at full scale in the field. The company is approaching a depth of about 3,300 feet at the same site.

Construction of Project Obsidian is underway at Oregon’s Deschutes National Forest. The project, which has the potential to generate gigawatt-scale power, is slated to deliver electricity to the Pacific Northwest grid by 2030.

Shell expands lower-carbon energy solutions while cutting emissions

The View from HETI

Shell’s approach to sustainable development reflects an integrated value chain perspective—reducing emissions from oil and gas production, transforming downstream businesses to offer more low-carbon solutions, and building new energy businesses at scale. The company’s 31% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 operational emissions since 2016 demonstrates that this integrated strategy delivers results.

Three Strategic Priorities Drive Progress

Leading Integrated Gas: Shell is growing its world-leading LNG business with lower carbon intensity, meeting rising demand for natural gas as a transition fuel and foundation for renewable energy integration.

Advantaged Upstream: The company is cutting emissions from oil and gas production while keeping output stable, proving that operational excellence can reduce environmental impact without sacrificing energy security.

Differentiated Downstream, Renewables, and Energy Solutions: Shell is transforming its businesses to offer more low-carbon solutions while reducing sales of traditional oil products, positioning the company for the evolving energy market.

Shell’s emissions reductions are happening across global operations:

United States: Significant emissions cuts from production assets through operational efficiency and technology deployment

Malaysia & Philippines: Emissions reduction programs at offshore operations demonstrating that low-carbon production works in diverse environments

Norway: Continued emissions intensity improvements from mature assets, showing that even older fields can decarbonize

Whale Partnership Demonstrates Innovation

Shell’s recent partnership with Chevron at the Whale deepwater asset showcases what’s possible with next-generation project design. By integrating emissions reduction strategies from the start, the partnership has lowered the greenhouse gas intensity approximately 30% over the project lifecycle relative to similar deepwater oil and gas production assets.

Shell’s strategy to deliver more value with less emissions includes climate change transition plans, mitigation actions and decarbonization levers supported by a suite of processes and greenhouse gas emission reduction targets such as:

2025 Results:

Eliminated routine flaring from upstream operations

Maintained methane emissions intensity below 0.2%

By 2030:

Halve Scope 1 and 2 emissions under operational control (vs. 2016)

Achieve near-zero methane emissions

Reduce Scope 3 net carbon intensity (NCI) by 15-20% (vs. 2016)

Cut customer emissions from oil products by 15-20% (vs. 2021)

By 2050:

Achieve net zero emissions across Scopes 1, 2, and 3

Across all strategic initiatives, Shell prioritizes trading and optimization capabilities that maximize value while minimizing emissions. This commercial approach ensures that the company’s energy transition strategy creates long-term shareholder value while advancing climate goals.

Shell is building an integrated energy business for the low-carbon future by delivering the energy products customers need today while investing in the solutions they’ll need tomorrow.

As a steering-level member of HETI, Shell exemplifies the leadership and commitment required to transform Houston’s energy sector while maintaining global energy security.

———

This article originally appeared on the Greater Houston Partnership's Houston Energy Transition Initiative blog . Explore Shell’s energy transition strategy at: https://www.shell.us/about-us/sustainability.html, and read the full analysis here: https://htxenergytransition.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/07.18.25-HETI-Leadership-Narrative-Report-V2_pages-1-2.pdf

UH report projects $1T in new midstream infrastructure needed to power AI era

midstream report

A new study from the University of Houston estimates that the U.S. will need more than $1 trillion in new midstream energy infrastructure investment by 2052 to meet the rising energy demands from data centers in the age of artificial intelligence.

According to the report, this would average $40 billion to $48 billion per year across investments in natural gas, oil, natural gas liquids, hydrogen and CO2 infrastructure.

UH, in collaboration with the INGAA Foundation and Wood and ESMIA Consultants, released the 2025 North American Midstream Infrastructure Report, which details the needs, pipelines and associated infrastructure necessary to meet global market needs and increased energy demands. UH led the consortium that conducted the analysis. Paul Doucette, hydrogen program officer at UH, served as the principal investigator of the report.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, data center energy consumption could reach 800 terawatt-hours annually by 2050, a roughly 167 percent increase from 300 terawatt-hours in 2025. Meanwhile, electricity generation from all energy sources is projected to reach 5,858 terawatt-hours in 2052, a 27 percent increase over current levels.

The report proposes two routes to meeting this level of demand.

The first scenario is a reference case based on current federal, state and provincial policies as of April 1, 2025. The second option presents a low-carbon scenario. The report concludes that natural gas would need to remain a “foundational component of the region’s energy system” in both scenarios.

“Meeting energy demand is a critical challenge right now, and this report quantifies the necessary midstream infrastructure and corresponding development dollars needed to meet that demand,” Hebe Shaw, executive director of the INGAA Foundation, said in a news release. “Meeting the energy needs of North America will require sustained investment and development, which must begin now to ensure a safe, reliable and affordable energy system.”

The report also identified several key midstream infrastructure requirements, including:

103,000 miles of new natural gas gathering pipelines
37,000 miles of additional natural gas transmission pipelines, which includes approximately 33,800 miles in the United States
24 million jobs over 25 years

The report adds that hydrogen, carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS), and other decarbonization strategies can help meet infrastructure needs.

UH released a condensed version of the report here.

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