据世界石油网站3月23日报道 沃伦·巴菲特支持的美国页岩巨头西方石油公司计划到2035年在全世界建造70座碳捕获工厂，每座工厂每年将直接从大气中清除多达100万吨的温室气体。

总部位于休斯敦的西方石油周三在向投资者介绍时表示，位于西得克萨斯州二叠纪盆地的第一座造价10亿美元的所谓直接空气捕捉工厂预计将于今年下半年开工，预计将于2024年底投营。

来自投资者的压力越来越大，导致几家主要石油生产商纷纷制定计划，通过风电场和碳捕获工厂等项目抵消其运营和生产化石燃料的部分排放，帮助减缓气候变化。

西方石油表示，该工厂建成后，将成为世界上最大的DAC项目，每年将从大气中清除约21.5万辆汽车的同等排放。

西方石油今年还将投资1亿美元，到2025年开发三个碳封存中心。该公司表示，今年有望为这些封存中心获得超过10万英亩的土地，包括墨西哥湾沿岸的多个封存地。

首席执行官维姬·霍卢布周三向投资者表示，她预计该公司的低碳业务最终将与其遗留化学品业务一样大。

霍卢布表示：“企业和首席执行官们正在意识到，为了缓解全球气候变化，我们现在采取措施是绝对必要的。这是一个明确的机会，也是一种我们可以将捕获的二氧化碳永久储存和保存在地下或通过产品的方式减少排放，也是实现可持续发展的途径。”

王磊 摘译自 世界石油

原文如下：

Occidental plans 70 plants to capture carbon from air by 2035

Occidental Petroleum Corp., the shale giant backed by Warren Buffett, plans to build 70 carbon capture facilities around the world by 2035 that will each remove as much as 1 million tons per year of the greenhouse gas directly from the atmosphere.

Construction on the first, $1 billion so-called direct air capture plant in the Permian Basin of West Texas is expected to start in the second half of this year, with its startup slated for late 2024, Houston-based Occidental said in a presentation to investors Wednesday. 

Mounting pressure from investors has led several major oil producers to lay out plans to help slow down climate change by offsetting some of the emissions from their operations and the fossil fuels they produce with projects like wind farms and carbon capture plants. 

When fully built, the plant billed as the world’s largest DAC project, will remove the equivalent of the emissions from about 215,000 cars from the atmosphere every year, Occidental said.

Occidental also is investing $100 million this year to develop three carbon sequestration hubs by 2025. The company said it’s on track to secure more than 100,000 net acres this year for these sequestration hubs, including for multiple sequestration sites on the Gulf Coast. 

Chief Executive Officer Vicki Hollub told investors Wednesday that she expects the company’s low carbon business will ultimately become as big as its legacy chemicals business. 

“Corporations and CEOs are realizing that for us to mitigate climate change in the world, it’s absolutely necessary that we take steps now,” Hollub said. “This is a sure opportunity and a way that we can definitively store and keep captured CO2 either underground or through products for forever, and it’s a path for others to make their path sustainable too.”