As the men, and a few women, of the oil and gas industry meet in Houston for the CERAWeek conference, how to keep extracting and burning hydrocarbons and products derived thereof is front and center. Instead of transitioning away from fossil fuels — the extraction and combustion of which are mainly causing global climate change, in line with industry expectations — firms are looking for new ways to keep using them.
One option is hydrogen, which Exxon CEO Darren Woods described as “an extension of [the firm’s] core capacity” which has been “transform[ing] molecules. Another is to simply continue to extract and burn fossil fuels and simply rely on carbon capture to fix the problem later.
“We believe that our direct capture technology is going to be the technology that helps to preserve our industry over time,” Occidental CEO Vicki Hollub told the audience. “This gives our industry a license to continue to operate for the 60, 70, 80 years that I think it’s going to be very much needed.” (Politico Pro $)