Investment company BlackRock Inc has committed a significant investment of USD550m into energy major Occidental’s Stratos project, set to become the world’s largest Direct Air Capture (DAC) facility, as reported by Reuters on November 8. Occidental’s subsidiary, 1PointFive, will partner with BlackRock in a joint venture owning the Stratos project, with a total investment sum of USD1.3bn. This DAC facility, slated to commence operations in mid-2025, is designed to extract 500,000 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) annually from the atmosphere and sequester it underground.

Occidental is utilizing the DAC project to mitigate its carbon footprint. Additionally, around 90% of the captured CO2 will be available to generate carbon-removal credits. Companies such as Amazon , Airbus SE , and All Nippon Airways have already signed agreements with 1PointFive to purchase these credits, offsetting their emissions. The International Energy Agency (IEA) has recognized that DAC technology is playing “an important and growing role” in achieving global net-zero emissions targets, despite initial high costs. Occidental plans to construct an additional 100 Stratos-like DAC plants to scale up the project and reduce the cost of carbon removal.

S****ources:

https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/blackrock-invest-550-mln-occidentals-carbon-capture-project-2023-11-07/

BlackRock Invests $550 Million in World’s Largest DAC Carbon Capture Project

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-11-07/blackrock-bets-550-million-on-occidental-carbon-capture-plant?srnd=green#xj4y7vzkg