By most metrics, the oil industry is thriving. Demand for oil and gas remains high, and last year the sector saw striking profits. But the industry is also under increasing pressure to address the climate crisis, and it wants a piece of the huge pot of federal money available for low-carbon technology. Oil and gas companies are now investing in carbon capture and other clean energy technologies to address these new realities — while preserving their core business of pumping oil, writes POLITICO reporter Ben Lefebvre. Technology that captures climate pollution from the air “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,” Occidental Petroleum CEO Vicki Hollub said during this week’s CERAWeek energy conference, a major industry gathering in Houston. Signs of this shift were everywhere at the conference, Ben writes. The head of Abu Dhabi’s state-owned oil company ADNOC bragged about his company’s solar power investments. Occidental, one of the largest U.S. oil companies, announced a $1 billion-plus project in western Texas to remove carbon dioxide from the air and said it was eyeing nuclear power projects. And Darren Woods, CEO and chair of Exxon Mobil, spent most of his address talking up the company’s newest business line that strips carbon dioxide pollution from industrial sites. Reality check: The consensus among climate scientists, however, is that staving off the worst of the climate emergency will require aggressive and quick cuts to oil and gas production — which is not what the industry has in mind. Overall spending on oil and gas exploration and production in North America is expected to rise nearly 18 percent this year from last. And many private or independent oil and gas producers have little interest in diversifying their business with low-carbon technologies. End in sight?
Still, the industry may not have 80 years worth of steady supply in the United States. According to data reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, companies are quickly draining their biggest and best wells. Frackers are exacting less and less from the nation’s busiest oil patches, like the Permian Basin in western Texas and New Mexico, suggesting shale growth could be plateauing. And that has implications for the United States’ growing role as a major petroleum exporter.
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