Assessing the climate strategy of Occidental Petroleum (Oxy)

The report argues that Occidental Petroleum's (Oxy) climate strategy is misaligned with the 1.5°C goal of the Paris Agreement. It finds that Oxy's net-zero targets are inadequate, focusing primarily on scope 1 and 2 emissions while ignoring the vast majority of its carbon footprint in scope 3. The analysis highlights a heavy overreliance on unproven direct air capture (DAC) technology, which the report claims is used as a 'licence to pollute' and a mechanism to prolong oil and gas extraction through enhanced oil recovery (EOR). The report further asserts that Oxy's 'net-zero oil' claims are scientifically invalid and that its lobbying efforts for government subsidies for carbon removals contradict its public climate commitments.

• Oxy's net-zero targets are insufficient as the only formal target for 2040 covers only scope 1 and 2 emissions, which represent only a small fraction of its total footprint. Scope 3 emissions, which account for approximately 90% of the company's greenhouse gas emissions, are only addressed through an "ambition" to reach net zero before 2050 without a specific target date.
• The company is increasing its fossil fuel production in contradiction to IPCC and IEA recommendations. Oxy aims to produce up to 1.3 million barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2024, a 10% increase over 2022 levels, and recently acquired CrownRock LP for $12 billion to further expand operations in the Permian Basin.
• Oxy's capital allocation is heavily skewed toward fossil fuels over climate solutions. In 2023, the company spent approximately $5 billion on oil and gas assets compared to $656 million on its net-zero pathway, meaning for every dollar spent on the latter, $7.60 was directed toward oil and gas.
• The 'net-zero oil' claim is described as a logical fallacy because the use of DAC for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) results in net-positive emissions. The report calculates that injecting 100,000 metric tonnes of CO2 to meet an agreement with SK Trading would result in annual net-positive emissions between 161,000 to 211,000 Mt of CO2.
• The STRATOS DAC plant's actual climate impact is significantly lower than advertised due to lifecycle emissions. While the nameplate capacity is 500,000 Mt of CO2 per year, the net removal benefit is estimated at only 195,000 tonnes when accounting for the emissions from the natural gas used to power the process.
• Oxy faces significant risks of double counting and greenwashing by pre-selling DAC credits to companies like Airbus and Amazon while simultaneously using DAC to offset its own emissions. The report notes that Oxy intends to sell up to 90% of the CO2 captured through its DAC plants as credits.
• Oxy's lobbying activities are misaligned with the 1.5°C target. The company spent nearly $6 million on lobbying in the first half of 2023, focusing on securing federal funding and tax credits (such as the 45Q enhancement) for carbon removal technologies.
• The company's climate disclosures are deemed misleading because it only reports location-based scope 2 emissions, failing to provide the market-based accounting required by the GHG Protocol and ISO Net Zero Guidelines.

APA

Liekens, I., Hernández, M. R., & Stoefs, W. (2024). Assessing the climate strategy of Occidental Petroleum (Oxy). Carbon Market Watch. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/04-24-Oxy-report-1.pdf

Chicago

Liekens, Isabelle, Marlène Ramón Hernández, and Wijnand Stoefs. Assessing the climate strategy of Occidental Petroleum (Oxy). Carbon Market Watch, 2024. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/04-24-Oxy-report-1.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Liekens |first1=Isabelle |last2=Hernández |first2=Marlène Ramón |last3=Stoefs |first3=Wijnand |title=Assessing the climate strategy of Occidental Petroleum (Oxy) |publisher=Carbon Market Watch |date=April 2024 |url=https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/04-24-Oxy-report-1.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{liekens2024assessing, author = {Liekens, Isabelle and Hernández, Marlène Ramón and Stoefs, Wijnand}, title = {{Assessing the climate strategy of Occidental Petroleum (Oxy)}}, institution = {Carbon Market Watch}, year = {2024}, month = apr, url = {https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/04-24-Oxy-report-1.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }