Chevron Corp. is exploring options to further reduce the carbon footprint from its U.S. Midcontinent and Gulf Coast operations through a new partnership announced Sept. 13 with Houston-based Enterprise Products Partners LP.

“This joint effort has the potential to advance our ongoing work to grow our lower carbon businesses with commercial scale using the industry expertise both companies bring to the project,” commented Jeff Gustavson, president of Chevron New Energies, in a joint company release. 

The U.S. oil major launched the Chevron New Energies business unit in July to accelerate its lower-carbon strategy through the dedication of resources to grow multiple business lines expected by Chevron to play a large role in the energy transition. In addition to carbon capture, investments have included a partnership with Caterpillar Inc. to collaborate on hydrogen projects.

“International climate change scientists working with the United Nations have identified carbon capture as a critical technology needed to help the global energy system transition to a lower carbon future,” Gustavson added in the release on Sept. 13.

In the release, Chevron U.S.A. Inc. announced a framework to study through its Chevron New Energies division with a subsidiary of Enterprise Products Partners to evaluate opportunities for the capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) of CO₂ from their respective business operations in the U.S. Midcontinent and Gulf Coast. The companies expect the initial phase of the study in which they will evaluate specific business opportunities to last about six months.

“The joint study with Chevron is part of our growing focus on developing and utilizing new technologies and leveraging our transportation and storage network in order to better manage our own carbon footprint and provide customers with new midstream services to support a lower carbon economy,” added A.J. “Jim” Teague, co-CEO of Enterprise’s general partner, in the joint release.

Enterprise Products Partners is one of the largest publicly traded partnerships and a leading North American provider of midstream energy services to producers and consumers. Based in Houston, the company’s assets include approximately 50,000 miles of pipelines; 260 million barrels of storage capacity for NGL, crude oil, refined products and petrochemicals; and 14 Bcf of natural gas storage capacity.

“Our success in upgrading and repurposing existing assets will be important to the success of any initiative we move forward with,” Teague noted.