Occidental announced that a wholly owned subsidiary—1PointFive—has entered into a definitive purchase agreement to acquire all the outstanding equity of Carbon Engineering Ltd. (CE) for total cash consideration of approximately $1.1 billion, to be made in three approximately equivalent annual payments, with the first at closing.

This transaction is expected to close before the end of 2023, subject to Canadian court reviews, Canadian and US regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.

Occidental has been working with Carbon Engineering on direct air capture (DAC) deployment since 2019. Acquiring Carbon Engineering aligns with Occidental’s integrated net-zero strategy and provides Occidental, through its 1PointFive subsidiary, the opportunity to rapidly advance DAC technology breakthroughs and accelerate deployment of DAC as a large-scale, cost effective, global carbon removal solution. Carbon Engineering’s DAC-based climate solutions utilize standardized processes and proven industrial equipment.

CE’s Direct Air Capture process, showing the major unit operations—air contactor, pellet reactor, slaker, and calciner—which collectively capture, purify, and compress atmospheric CO₂. Source: CE

Upon closing, Carbon Engineering would become a wholly owned subsidiary of Oxy Low Carbon Ventures. Carbon Engineering’s personnel will continue to drive ongoing DAC technology development efforts and work closely with the Occidental and 1PointFive teams to bring DAC solutions to market. Carbon Engineering’s research and development activities and Innovation Center will remain in Squamish, British Columbia.

1PointFive is building Stratos, the world’s largest DAC plant, which is expected to be commercially operational in mid-2025, in Ector County, Texas. Occidental and Carbon Engineering are also adapting Stratos’ front-end engineering and design study for a DAC plant to be built at King Ranch in Kleberg County, which is part of the South Texas DAC Hub that was selected to receive a grant from the US Department of Energy’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations. (Earlier post.)

Occidental is an international energy company with assets primarily in the United States, the Middle East and North Africa. It is one of the largest oil producers in the US, including a leading producer in the Permian and DJ basins, and offshore Gulf of Mexico.