USA Steel Major Taps ExxonMobil for Carbon Capture

Exxon Mobil Corp. said Thursday it will store carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted by Nucor Corp. at 800,000 metric tons per annum (mtpa), in a deal that raises its carbon capture commitments involving industry customers to five million mtpa.

The capture, transport and storage agreement with the USA major steel producer involves the direct reduced iron manufacturing plant project of Nucor in Louisiana state that is expected to start up 2026, ExxonMobil said in a press release.

This is its third carbon capture agreement.

Linde PLC announced April 4 a pact with the global energy giant for the offtake of climate-damaging emissions from the former’s clean hydrogen production facility in Texas state. From the plant, expected to begin operation 2025, ExxonMobil will transport up to 2.2 million mtpa for permanent storage, “equivalent to the emissions from nearly half a million cars per year”, gas supplier and gas engineering solutions provider Linde said in a press release.

CF Industries Holdings Inc. will also have up to two million mtpa of CO2 permanently stored by ExxonMobil. The deal announced in a joint release October 12 involves the hydrogen and nitrogen producer’s plant in Louisiana that is expected to open 2025.

“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, ExxonMobil president for low carbon solutions, said in Thursday’s announcement.

The deal with Charlotte city-based Nucor “marks a milestone – bringing the total CO2 we’ve agreed to transport and store for third-party customers to 5 million metric tons per year (MTA)”, ExxonMobil said. “That’s equivalent to replacing approximately 2 million gasoline-powered cars with electric vehicles, which is roughly equal to the total number of EVs on US roads today”.

ExxonMobil will use the same transport and storage infrastructure under its agreement with CF Industries.

ExxonMobil unveiled April 4 a strategy for low carbon solutions focusing on “the hardest-to-decarbonize sectors, including heavy industry, commercial transportation and power generation, which together account for 80% of global energy-related CO2 emissions”.

Thursday’s announcement comes a day after ExxonMobil shareholders voted down several proposals that would toughen the company’s climate roadmap, including the establishment of a framework to cut Scope 3, or indirect, emissions and reduce fossil fuel sales.

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