Exxon plans massive hydrogen, carbon capture and storage plant near Houston

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Exxon Mobil (XOM +1.6%) unveils plans to build one of the world's largest carbon capture and storage project, as well as a new hydrogen production plant, at its Baytown refinery in Texas.

The company says the proposed hydrogen facility would produce up to 1B cf/day of blue hydrogen, produced from natural gas and supported by carbon capture and storage; the carbon capture infrastructure for this project would have the capacity to transport and store as much as 10M metric tons/year of CO2, more than doubling Exxon's current capacity.

Using hydrogen as a fuel at Exxon's Baytown olefins plant could reduce the complex's Scope 1 and 2 CO2 emissions by up to 30%, which the company says supports its ambition to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions from its operated assets by 2050.

Exxon says the project would form its initial contribution to a cross-industry effort to establish a $100B carbon capture and storage hub along the Houston Ship Channel with an initial target of 50M metric tons of CO2 annually by 2030 and 100M tons by 2040.

The past 24 hours have been busy for Exxon, which released a capital markets presentation emphasizing shareholder returns and energy transition investment while also cutting $9B/year from operating costs by 2023.