ADNOC and Occidental to evaluate carbon management projects in the UAE and US to accelerate net zero goals

ADNOC and Occidental on Tuesday announced they have signed a strategic collaboration agreement (SCA) to evaluate potential investment opportunities in carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture and storage (CCS) hubs in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and United States (US) with a view to develop a carbon management platform to accelerate the net zero goals of both companies.

The agreement is enabled by the UAE-US Partnership for Accelerating Clean Energy (PACE), which was launched in November 2022 and is expected to catalyse $100 billion (AED367 billion) in clean energy and carbon management projects, including CCS and direct air capture (DAC), by 2035.

In January 2023, an expert body was formed to govern PACE, co-chaired by His Excellency Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and ADNOC Managing Director and Group CEO, and Amos Hochstein, White House Senior Advisor to the President for Energy and Investment. Hochstein said: “The world is going to need a host of technologies, including DAC and CCUS, to meet our global climate objectives. This important announcement is a great example of what the U.S.-UAE Partnership for Accelerating Clean Energy (PACE) can help enable. I look forward to what this agreement yields.”

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), investments in CCS and DAC will play an important role to mitigate climate change.

Vicki Hollub, President and Chief Executive Officer at Occidental, said: “We look forward to building on our longstanding partnership with ADNOC as we advance our plans to globally deploy DAC technology and engage partners who are committed to developing carbon solutions at climate-relevant scale. Partnerships like this one are essential to helping the world reach its climate goals and ensure it has the resources it needs to thrive through the energy transition. We look forward to working with ADNOC on our shared vision of establishing a global net-zero ecosystem.”

As part of the agreement, ADNOC and Occidental are evaluating the development of DAC facilities in the UAE, including what could be the first megaton DAC project constructed outside of the US. 

Musabbeh Al Kaabi, Executive Director of Low Carbon Solutions and International Growth at ADNOC said: “This agreement highlights how the UAE-US Partnership for Accelerating Clean Energy is driving innovative climate technologies to decarbonise the energy sector. The need to significantly reduce carbon emissions to address climate change is clear and urgent and carbon capture is an important technology that can be scaled up to decarbonize across all industries.

“ADNOC is a pioneer in carbon management, exemplified by our industry leading low-carbon intensity and our operation of Al Reyadah, the region’s first commercial scale carbon capture facility. As we accelerate our net zero ambition to 2045 and decarbonise our operations, partnerships like this offer the potential to transform the systems that will be vital to provide the lower-carbon energy the world needs for the energy transition.”

The companies will also assess the joint development of one or more carbon management hubs in the UAE. The hubs would be able to offer carbon capture services and provide the necessary infrastructure to safely transport CO₂ from the UAE’s carbon-intensive and hard-to-abate sectors and permanently store it in Abu Dhabi’s ideal geological formations.

Under the SCA, ADNOC will also explore its participation in a number of DAC and CO₂ sequestration hubs in the US that are under development by Occidental’s subsidiary, 1PointFive. Its Stratos DAC project, currently under construction in Texas, is one of such hubs and it is expected to capture 500,000 tonnes of CO₂ from the atmosphere per year when fully operational.

Building on its legacy as a responsible global energy pioneer, ADNOC is set to increase investments in and double down on its decarbonisation efforts, backed by an initial $15 billion allocation to low-carbon solutions. The company extends an open invitation to investors, climate technology providers and industry across all sectors to partner on its journey to supercharge and accelerate decarbonisation solutions.