new tech, partnerships touted at CERAWeek

An expanding focus on technologies to enable the energy transition and an increasing need for partnerships to develop new technologies were among the top takeaways from Chevron at CERAWeek 2023 in Houston.

Chevron New Energies President Jeff Gustavson joined a panel to discuss how collaboration is critical to accelerating lower carbon solutions. Chris Powers, Chevron New Energies vice president, CCUS, also touted partnerships while announcing the expansion of a carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) project along the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Carbon capture, advancements in second-generation technology, streamlining the permitting process and advancing partnerships will accelerate the development of CCUS projects around the world, Powers said.

An example of those collaborative partnerships is the Bayou Bend initiative, one of the largest offshore carbon dioxide (CO₂) storage projects in the United States. Powers announced its expansion of nearly 100,000 acres onshore in Chambers and Jefferson counties, Texas, as well as Chevron’s new role as operator. Other partners in the project include Talos Energy, through its Talos Low Carbon Solutions division, and Carbonvert, a carbon capture and storage project development and finance company.

“It’s going to position Bayou Bend to be the leading CCUS solution provider for many industries from the East Houston Ship Channel all the way to the Golden Triangle,” said Powers of the project’s reach, which stretches to the East Texas cities of Beaumont, Port Arthur and Orange.

The area’s subsurface geology and favorable business environment were major draws for Chevron. “There are over 100 million tonnes of addressable emissions,” he said of the Bayou Bend area.

Between Bayou Bend’s onshore and offshore positions, it has over 1 billion tonnes of gross storage capacity.

Powers also spoke about the importance of emerging technologies in industries where it is difficult to curb CO₂ emissions.

He told the CERAWeek crowd that Chevron’s focus is on lowering the carbon intensity of our existing operations and growing our CCUS businesses to help reduce the CO₂ emissions of hard-to-abate industries. “CCUS is one of them,” he said, “but also hydrogen and emerging technologies developed to tackle hard-to-abate sectors like cement, steel, petrochemicals and others. Our particular focus is doing it to scale.”

During his discussion, Gustavson echoed Powers’ enthusiasm for the role of new technologies in fields like subsurface technology and hydrogen production and transportation.

“Technology has the power to enable us to scale and commercialize these new lower carbon solutions,” he said. “Chevron has tremendous expertise, research and development internally, and we also have paths to accelerate that development through Chevron Technology Ventures, investment and key partnerships.”

Decarbonization continued to be a central theme throughout CERAWeek as Chevron and Pertamina, Indonesia’s national oil company, announced a partnership focused on lower carbon business opportunities. The companies will be exploring CCUS possibilities in East Kalimantan, Indonesia.

“Partnerships are everything,” Gustavson said. “Together, we can accelerate a lower carbon future while still delivering the energy the world needs. We're taking a disciplined approach and collaborating on everything from advocacy to technology pilots to help enable the new value chains that will serve the energy systems of tomorrow.”