The week has been thick with acquisitions by producers and midstreamers eager to leverage their new investments as part of grander plans. Such is the case with Houston-based Occidental Petroleum, which paints its future less as an E&P and more as a global carbon management company—and not just hopping on the decarbonization net-zero bus but driving it.

Reese Energy Consulting today is following the latest from Oxy, which has added another critical component to achieve that mission with its $1.1 billion purchase of B.C.-based Carbon Engineering (CE) and its Direct Air Capture technology. Occidental through its 1PointFive subsidiary announced partnering with CE in June 2022 to build 70-135 DAC plants, each with the capacity to remove a megaton of C02 per year from the atmosphere. CE’s tech uses giant fans that act as vacuums to pull air into a processing facility where the C02 is separated using potassium hydroxide, then compressed and pipelined to a sequestered site.

With five DAC hubs planned in Texas and La., Occidental is now constructing its first and biggest. Upon completion in mid-2025, Stratos will become the world’s largest DAC facility, designed to capture 500,000 tonnes of C02 per year. Stratos is also located a sneeze away from Oxy’s Permian operations in Ector County. 1PointFive last week received a $1.2 billion boost from Uncle Sam for the company’s South Texas hub, which will remove 30 million tonnes of C02 per year and offer a storage capacity of 3 billion metric tonnes.