BlackRock will invest $550 million in a large direct air capture project being built in Texas by Occidental Petroleum subsidiary 1PointFive, the companies said late Tuesday.

The Stratos plant is designed to capture up to 500,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year, with a potential to increase that capacity to 1 million mt/year.

The Permian Basin facility is scheduled to become operational in mid-2025.

The companies have agreed to form a joint venture to develop the project, with BlackRock investing through a fund managed by its infrastructure business.

"This joint venture demonstrates that direct air capture is becoming an investable technology and BlackRock's commitment in Stratos underscores its importance and potential for the world," Occidental President and Chief Executive Vicki Hollub said in a news release.

She said BlackRock's expertise across global markets and industries makes the company "the ideal partner" to help further industrial-scale DAC deployment.

Larry Fink, chairman and chief executive of BlackRock, said the project represents an "incredible investment opportunity" for its clients.

The announcement came just days after Canada's TD Bank Group said it had agreed to buy 27,500 CO2 removal credits over four years from the Texas project.

Amazon, Airbus and All Nippon Airways have also signed advance purchase deals with 1PointFive.

The plant will deploy technology developed by Canadian DAC company Carbon Engineering, which is being acquired by Occidental for $1.1 billion.

The Texas facility is one of dozens of large-scale DAC plants Occidental intends to build worldwide by 2035.


This content was created by Oil Price Information Service, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. OPIS is run independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.


--Reporting by Abdul Latheef, alatheef@opisnet.com; Editing by Michael Kelly, mkelly@opisnet.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

11-08-23 1156ET