Wedoany.com Report-Jan 15, U.S. energy giant Exxon Mobil (XOM.N), opens new tab has requested the Texas General Land Office (GLO) to not publicly disclose the terms of its offshore lease agreement for a carbon sequestration project with the state.
In a letter on Jan. 13 to the Attorney General of Texas, the company asked to instruct the GLO not to disclose materials under the Texas Public Information Act, as they contained confidential and proprietary commercial and financial information.
Exxon, in October, secured state leases with the GLO for over 271,000 acres in Texas state waters for an offshore carbon dioxide capture operation.
The letter from Jan. 13 states that the project is "the largest offshore carbon-dioxide storage lease in the United States," and contained not only commercial terms that were proprietary and confidential, but also "information that is unique to this groundbreaking deal."
"If competitors knew dollar amounts, term lengths, and other similar specific commercial terms of this Lease, they could potentially determine portions of ExxonMobil's rate structures and strategies regarding its broader carbon-dioxide transportation and storage business," it added.
Exxon's October lease followed its 2021 bid for federal land off the Texas coast for CO2 capture, and its emergence as a high bidder on 69 blocks in the shallow waters of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico in 2023 to further expand its potential carbon storage area.
Carbon capture, a process where CO2 generated from industrial activity is stored underground, has been embraced by oil companies — including Chevron (CVX.N), opens new tab, Occidental Petroleum (OXY.N), opens new tab and TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA), opens new tab — to reduce emissions in the environment and address climate change.
