Emerging Fuels Pipelines

About Carbon Capture and Storage

Capturing, transporting and safely storing carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions is a proven process that will create a new Louisiana industry, help sustain jobs in the state's industries that produce CO₂ and help meet our climate goals.

Few challenges are more important than maintaining an accessible and affordable supply of energy while reducing its environmental impact. ExxonMobil is playing a leading role in addressing this challenge by lessening the carbon footprint of its own operations while spearheading technologies that will produce lower-carbon fuels, such as hydrogen, and help carbon-intensive industries reach their net-zero emission targets through carbon capture and storage (CCS).

Working to make these goals a reality, ExxonMobil Pipeline Company is leveraging its logistical and pipeline expertise to develop plans for new networks of carbon dioxide (CO₂) and hydrogen (H₂) pipelines. CO₂ pipelines will transport captured carbon emissions to storage, helping sustain industries, whose manufacturing processes produce CO₂, meet any future restrictions on CO₂ emissions. H₂ pipelines will transport future supplies of this to industrial sites that have converted from other fuels to hydrogen.

In Louisiana, ExxonMobil Pipeline Company is supporting Low Carbon Solutions' foundational CCS project by building the originating and terminating segments of the pipeline that will transport the captured CO₂ emissions to storage.

Why Louisiana?

Louisiana has a special combination of energy and industrial jobs we need to keep, and it has the natural geology deep underground needed to safely store these industries' carbon emissions.
Louisiana has a long, proven history of safe underground storage operations. America’s underground Strategic Petroleum Reserve is an example – two storage sites have been operating safely beneath Iberville and Cameron Parishes for more than 30 years.
The Gulf of Mexico coast and seabed are home to expansive underground geological formations well-suited for the storage of carbon dioxide (CO₂).
Louisiana’s heavy industrial job base will benefit from capturing and storing carbon emissions.

What Is Carbon Capture and Storage? Why Do We Need It?

Carbon Dioxide

Carbon dioxide (CO₂) is a colorless, odorless gas and is everywhere. Humans exhale it. Plants live on it. It gives soft drinks their fizz. In addition to it being a naturally occurring gas, it is also created when we burn oil or natural gas to generate electricity or power manufacturing plants.

CO₂ plays an important role in the atmosphere. It helps trap the sun’s heat, warming our planet and protecting it from the frigid temperatures of outer space. However, too much CO₂ in the atmosphere traps too much heat and risks raising the earth’s temperature.

Many things we need produce CO₂ including cars, planes, agricultural equipment, and the manufacturing of countless daily essentials and building materials such as steel and concrete. Unfortunately, as the world works to limit the level of CO₂ in the atmosphere, we will either need to reduce the amount of CO₂ these activities produce, or we will have to limit these activities. However, if we capture the CO₂ at the manufacturing site before it is released to the atmosphere, we can continue to benefit from activities and products that produce CO₂, while meeting climate goals.

Carbon Capture and Storage

Carbon Capture and Storage, or CCS, is a process that will allow Louisiana's industries that emit carbon dioxide (CO₂) to both maintain operations and reduce CO₂ emissions by using special equipment to remove the CO₂ from their facilities' exhaust before it reaches the air. Once captured, the CO₂ can be transported by pipeline to an underground storage area designated by the government for safe and permanent storage. The same type of solid layers of rock that have kept oil and natural gas locked underground for millions of years can safely store CO₂.

To help develop their CCS systems, companies that produce CO₂ are working with oil and natural gas companies since they are experts at transporting and storing gases. These systems will require building carbon capture equipment at the source, pipelines to carry the captured carbon away from the source and wells to inject the CO₂ safely and permanently underground.

Benefits of CCS

Hard hat icon

Carbon capture and storage projects will support the well-paying jobs at manufacturing facilities that produce carbon dioxide (CO₂). By reducing their carbon footprint, CCS will allow these companies to continue operations as well as use available, affordable and reliable sources of energy. In addition, building CCS projects will create new, well-paying construction jobs and generate tax revenue for use at the state and local levels.

manufacturing icon

The International Energy Agency has concluded that important climate goals will be virtually impossible without CCS. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) also has observed that the cost of reaching these goals will be considerably higher without CCS. Excluding CCS from our climate toolkit not only would result in significant increases in the cost of achieving overall emissions reductions but would also pose a risk that the climate goals may not be met.

Update icon

An even greater benefit is that by capturing the CO₂ produced before it reaches the air, companies will enhance the sustainability of their manufacturing processes and contribute to the state and country’s ability to achieve their climate goals.

car icon

For individuals, CCS will mean the ability to maintain today’s lifestyle, which is heavily derived from oil and natural gas, because energy production and the products we enjoy can be significantly decarbonized.

CO₂ Fact Sheets

CO₂ Pipelines - Part of our Clean Energy Future

CO₂ Underground Storage Safety

CO₂ Pipeline Safety

See All Resources

Breaking Down the Process

Capture

Transportation

Storage

If you have any questions, please contact our team directly using the link below or calling our project representative.

Michael Smith, Public & Stakeholder Engagement Lead
michael.d.smith1@exxonmobil.com
888-804-4788