Chevron has withdrawn from a significant climate initiative in California's Kern County, a project designed to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and sequester it underground. The company's exit marks a departure from a 2023 partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy for the Western Regional Direct Air Capture Hub, one of the few projects selected to receive federal subsidies under the Biden administration's efforts to support carbon capture technology.
Chanel Jolly, a Chevron spokeswoman, stated that the company decided to withdraw from the project, scheduled for July 2025, following extensive discussions with the Department of Energy. The reasons behind this decision have not been publicly disclosed by the company. "Chevron’s agreement to a consensus termination of this award should not be construed as a reflection of the viability of the project, the performance or contributions of any participating subrecipient organization, Chevron’s position on other partnerships with DOE or DOE’s efforts to support CCS," Jolly wrote in an email, according to The Bakersfield Californian.
The proposed Eastridge Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) project was intended to capture up to 300,000 metric tons of CO2 annually. Chevron was responsible for developing the necessary infrastructure to capture carbon dioxide emissions from an oilfield power plant in Kern County and permanently store it deep underground.
Project documents indicate that the captured CO2 would have been transported via a new pipeline to a storage site within the Kern River Oilfield. There, it was planned to be injected into a saline aquifer, a layer of salty underground water, beneath approximately 7,343 acres. Over its projected lifespan, Chevron aimed to store up to 6.8 million tons of carbon dioxide in this formation. The company was also slated to construct specialized infrastructure, including injection wells and pressure-management wells, to ensure the stability of the underground storage environment.
Local experts had previously noted the potential economic benefits of the project for Kern County, citing the region's geological suitability for carbon dioxide storage. Katy Larson, director of the California Energy Research Center at Cal State Bakersfield, observed that companies nationwide were exploring Kern County for carbon capture technology testing. "DAC also has the ability to contribute to other economies (which is always an interesting conversation in Kern County as our economies are interconnected). Once the CO2 is captured, the CO2 may be utilized in agriculture, medicine, manufacturing, etc," she previously stated.
Chevron had received a $3 million grant from the Department of Energy in August 2023 to assess the project's feasibility, according to the Kern County Planning and Natural Resources Department. Direct air capture technology involves pulling carbon dioxide from the ambient air, which can then be injected and stored underground.