在德克萨斯州和新墨西哥州的二叠纪盆地，美国页岩油繁荣的核心地带，人们普遍没有对其生产对气候的影响进行太多的反省。卡车司机的可用性和将石油运输到市场的管道能力是更紧迫的问题。

西方石油公司是一个例外，它是美国市值第五大石油集团，也是二叠纪盆地最大净面积钻探权的持有者。

与埃克森美孚公司和雪佛龙公司等竞争对手一样，西方石油公司是这场生产热潮的主要参与者之一。过去三年，二叠纪页岩油产量增加了一倍多，预计未来五年将再增加一倍，达到每天 60 万桶油当量。但与此同时，该公司致力于减少碳足迹。

“我正在考虑股东的长期利益，”西方石油公司首席执行官维姬·霍鲁布(Vicki Hollub)在休斯敦告诉英国《金融时报》。

“相信如果你今天不解决这些[气候]问题，你就会落后。”

最终，她希望西方石油公司能够实现“碳中和”：捕获相当于其运营、供应链以及其生产的石油和天然气的使用所产生的所有排放量的温室气体。

“感觉这是我们业务长期可持续发展的关键，”她说。“如果你没有这个，你几乎不需要进行操作。”

霍勒布计划解决这个问题的方法是利用二氧化碳，否则这些二氧化碳会从工厂和发电厂释放到大气中。将天然气注入油藏有助于挤出更多原油，这种做法被称为 EOR，并且它将二氧化碳留在地下而不是大气中。

对于从直井生产的“常规”石油来说，该技术已经很成熟。西方石油公司一直在水平页岩井中进行 EOR 试点，Hollub 将其描述为“技术上取得了成功”。

目前，该公司正在制定一项计划，在二叠纪东侧的米德兰盆地使用 EOR 进行页岩油全油田开发，该计划可能于 2021 年开始生产。

从产量和排放量来看，基本算术看起来很有吸引力。西方石油公司估计，目前该公司正在开采其页岩储量中约 11% 的石油；Hollub 希望 EOR 能够将其提高到 17% 或 18%。与此同时，燃烧时产生的每个石油分子释放的二氧化碳比注入油藏提取的二氧化碳要少。

然而，在将这些成功的试点项目扩大到一个完整的油田方面，该公司仍然面临着一些艰巨的挑战。“这里有大量的页岩，”霍勒布说。“要使其发挥作用，能够设计实现这一目标所需的地面设施和基础设施是关键。”

标准 EOR 使用通过钻井提取的自然资源中的二氧化碳。为了对排放产生积极影响，西方石油公司需要利用人类活动产生的二氧化碳。11月，它投资了一家名为Net Power的公司，该公司正在开发一种创新的燃气发电机，可排放适合EOR的纯净二氧化碳流。它还正在探索从乙醇和钢铁厂等工业设施中采购二氧化碳的计划。

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一个大问题是，拥有工厂和发电厂的工业和人口中心往往距离德克萨斯州西部广阔空间的油田很远。正如 Hollub 承认的那样：“将需要非常长的管道。”

然而，碳捕获、利用和储存是少数能够赢得国会共和党人和特朗普政府支持的气候相关技术之一，政府的支持可以使西方石油公司的计划变得可行。

去年，名为 45Q 的税收抵免改革为捕获并用于包括 EOR 在内的应用的二氧化碳创造了每吨 35 美元的收益。“这确实使我们有可能开始在美国制定这一战略，”霍勒布说。

在两党的支持下，进一步的立法，即所谓的“Se It”法案，其中包括一系列旨在加快二氧化碳管道建设的措施，已在国会取得进展。

霍鲁布说：“将这两件事结合起来，这对我们来说无疑是一项经济冒险。”

正如她承认的那样，利用二氧化碳进行 EOR“可以成为应对气候威胁的整体解决方案”。世界根本没有足够的合适油藏来容纳其排放的所有温室气体。

尽管如此，Hollub 认为，为了实现《巴黎气候协议》将全球气温上升幅度控制在“低于”2 摄氏度的目标，使用二氧化碳进行 EOR 是“即将实现”的技术之一。

她补充道，这对于西方石油公司的未来也至关重要。“我们会长期留在这里，”她说。“我们希望成为生产最后一桶石油的公司。” 那桶石油必须来自二氧化碳强化石油采收，因为那是排放量最低的桶。”

In the Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico, the racing heart of the U.S. shale oil boom, there is generally not too much soul-searching about the implications for the climate of their production. The availability of truck drivers and pipeline capacity for transporting the oil to market are much more pressing concerns.

Occidental Petroleum Corp., the fifth-largest U.S. oil group by market capitalization and the holder of the largest net acreage of drilling rights in the Permian Basin, is an exception.

Like its rivals including Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp., Occidental is one of the key participants in that production boom. In the past three years, it has more than doubled its Permian shale output, and it expects to double it again to 600,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day in the next five years. But at the same time, the company is committed to reducing its carbon footprint.

“I’m thinking about the long term for our shareholders,” Vicki Hollub, Occidental CEO, told the Financial Times in Houston.

“We believe if you’re not addressing these [climate] issues today, you’re going to be behind the game.”

Ultimately, she wants Occidental to be “carbon neutral”: capturing greenhouse gases equivalent to all the emissions arising from its operations, its supply chain and the use of the oil and gas that it produces.

“We feel like that’s the key to sustainability of our business over time,” she said. “If you don’t have that, you almost don’t need to be in operation.”

The way Hollub plans to square that circle is by using CO₂ that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere from factories and power plants. Injecting the gas into oil reservoirs helps squeeze out more crude, a practice known as EOR, and it leaves the CO₂ underground rather than in the atmosphere.

The technique is already well-established for “conventional” oil produced from vertical wells. Occidental has been running pilots of EOR in horizontal shale wells, and Hollub describes them as “technically successful.”

Now the company is working on a plan for a full-field development using EOR for shale in the Midland Basin, on the eastern side of the Permian, which could start production in 2021.

The basic arithmetic looks appealing, in terms of both production and emissions. Occidental estimates that today it is extracting about 11% of the oil in place in its shale reserves; Hollub hopes EOR can raise that to 17% or 18%. At the same time, each molecule of oil produced releases less CO₂ when burnt than was injected into the reservoir to extract.

The company still faces some formidable challenges, however, in scaling those successful pilots up to a full oilfield. “There is a vast amount of shale,” Hollub said. “To make it work, [being] able to design the surface facilities and infrastructure needed to do that is key.”

Standard EOR uses CO₂ from natural sources, extracted by drilling wells. To have a positive impact on emissions, Occidental needs to use CO₂ created by human activity. In November, it invested in a company called Net Power, which is developing an innovative gas-fired power generator that emits a pure stream of CO₂ suitable for EOR. It is also exploring plans for sourcing CO₂ from industrial facilities including ethanol and steel plants.

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A big problem is that centers of industry and population with factories and power plants tend to be a long way from the oil fields in the wide-open spaces of West Texas. As Hollub admits: “A very long pipeline is going to be needed.”

However, carbon capture, use and storage is one of the few climate-related technologies that has been able to win support from Republicans in Congress and the Trump administration, and government support could make Occidental’s plans viable.

Reform of a tax credit known as 45Q last year created a benefit of $35 per tonne for CO₂ captured and used for applications including EOR. “That really made it possible for us to start to put this strategy together here in the United States,” Hollub said.

Further legislation, called the “Use It” act, which includes a range of measures intended to expedite the construction of carbon-dioxide pipelines, has been making progress in Congress with bipartisan support.

Hollub said: “With the combination of those two things, this becomes certainly an economic venture for us.”

As she acknowledges, using CO₂ for EOR “can’t be the whole solution” for the climate threat. The world simply does not have enough suitable oil reservoirs for all the greenhouse gases that it emits.

Still, Hollub argues that to achieve the Paris climate agreement goal of keeping the rise in global temperatures to “well below” 2C, using CO₂ for EOR is one of the technologies that “has to happen.”

It is also, she adds, essential for the future of Occidental. “We’re here for the long term,” she said. “We want to be the company that’s producing the last barrel of oil. And that barrel of oil has to be from CO₂-enhanced oil recovery, because that’s the lowest emission barrel possible.”