Innovation unlocks low-carbon development at scale
Innovation continues to be central to accelerating the development and deployment of the low-carbon technologies needed to reduce and remove emissions across the energy system.
As projects move from demonstration to commercial scale, OGCI is increasingly focused on providing practical tools alongside technical guidance and shared expertise to help overcome barriers to enable more widescale deployment of carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS), and low-carbon fuels for marine, aviation and other sectors.
OGCI member companies continue to individually invest across a broad portfolio of solutions, including electrification, energy efficiency, renewable energy, bioenergy and biofuels, low-carbon fuels such as hydrogen, CCUS, engineered carbon removals and nature-based solutions.
in low-carbon solutions in 2025
cumulative investment since 2017
In 2025, OGCI member companies invested a total aggregate of $28 billion in researching, developing, scaling and acquiring low-carbon technologies and solutions. Since 2017, cumulative low-carbon investment1 has reached $156 billion, reflecting members’ continued focus on advancing technologies that can help reduce emissions across both their operations and the wider energy system.
Porthos, Netherlands
Credit: ExxonMobil, Shell
Working across the CCUS value chain
CCUS and direct air capture are expected to play an important role in reducing emissions and carbon removals from from hard-to-abate sectors as well as from production.
OGCI works across the CCUS value chain with emitters, project developers, policy makers, investors and technical experts. This helps support collaboration, and knowledge sharing across the CCUS value chain to help accelerate project delivery.
A key focus is supporting regional CCUS hubs that connect multiple industrial emitters with shared transport and permanent CO2 storage infrastructure.
To support these efforts, OGCI has developed practical resources and tools including the Global Hub Search Tool, the CCUS Hub Playbook and the CO2 Storage Resource Catalogue. These tools help project developers, governments and investors assess storage resources, plan infrastructure and manage technical and commercial risks.
OGCI also helps strengthen the conditions needed to unlock investment through economic analysis, storage assessments and technical considerations.
Its CCUS Value Tool assesses the socio-economic impact of CCUS projects on employment and value added to the UK economy. OGCI’s CO2 Storage Licence Tracker consolidates information on CO2 storage permits across nine countries, including the UK, the US, and Norway.
This gives policymakers, regulators, project developers and investors a practical way to show tangible economic benefits from the deployment of CCUS and carbon removals, which helps build support to accelerate the development of more such projects and hubs.
During 2025 and 2026, OGCI expanded its portfolio of technical resources to help accelerate CCUS and removals projects. This included new research on the potential of CO2 mineralizing rocks to expand global geological storage capacity and efforts to examine considerations for the management and transfer of storage licences and liabilities.
New work published in 2026 on Carbon Accounting for CCS and Engineered Carbon Removals, – and on long-term CO2 storage considerations – helps build confidence in the scalability of CCUS projects.
Drawing on the experience of member companies that are developing a total of more than 50 potential CCUS hubs worldwide, OGCI continues to share high-level best practices based on lessons learned and technical expertise to help advance the projects from concept to commercial operation.
OGCI is helping efforts to scale CCUS by addressing both technical and non-technical barriers by engaging with key stakeholders across the value chain. It is working with the Clean Energy Ministerial CCUS Initiative and the Geneva Association to explore the role that insurance can play in supporting CCUS deployment.
By convening representatives from the energy industry, insurance/reinsurance companies and government agencies, a greater understanding of how to understand and optimize risk allocation across the value chain is being built.
In addition to this, OGCI continues to engage with hard-to-abate sectors such as steel and cement to further development of solutions and improve business models for CCUS.
BUILDING THE NEXT GENERATION OF DAC HUBS
Occidental advances direct air capture
Occidental’s STRATOS facility is designed to remove up to 0.5 Mt of CO2 from the atmosphere annually once fully operational. The project builds on more than 50 years of CO2 management experience and is helping advance direct air capture technology. Captured CO2 can be securely stored in saline reservoirs, generating carbon dioxide removal credits for companies seeking durable emissions solutions. The CO2 can also be used as a feedstock to produce low carbon products.
potential CCUS hubs worldwide
Northern Endurance
Partnership, United Kingdom
Credit: bp, Equinor, TotalEnergies
Gillis CCS, United States of America
Credit: ExxonMobil
SCALING COMMERCIAL CCS ON THE GULF COAST
ExxonMobil starts up new CCS projects in Louisiana
ExxonMobil has expanded its active CCS network in Louisiana with the startup of its second and third active CCS operations, bringing its contracted CO2 storage capacity in the state to up to 4 Mt/year. This includes a project in Gillis, La., to remove up to 1.2 Mt/year from the natural gas stream before the treated gas is delivered to Gulf Coast markets, including LNG facilities.
From capture to storage, our work helps scale CCUS hubs
1
Capture
Industrial emissions
CCUS hub
Direct air capture
2
Transport
OGCI identifies infrastructure options.
Pipeline
Shipping and trucking
3
Store
OGCI identifies technical readiness of global CO2 storage.
Storage
Use
CCUS Global Hub Search Tool
Explore 272 potential hubs in 59 countries to identify where CCUS deployment can have the greatest impact.
CO2 Storage Resource Catalogue
Independent assessment of storage resources at 1,272 sites worldwide to support confidence in CCUS investment.
CO2 Storage Licence Tracker
Interactive overview of global storage licensing activity and regulatory readiness.
Mafic Rock Map
All tools and resources are free and publicly available at www.ogci.com/ccus
KNOWLEDGE
Data and insights
COLLABORATION
Sharing expertise
ACTION
Enabling projects
IMPACT
Lower emissions
Low-carbon mobility
Transport accounts for around one-quarter of global energy-related CO2 emissions,2 with aviation, shipping and heavy-duty road transport presenting some of the most difficult sectors to decarbonize.3
OGCI is working with industry partners to accelerate the deployment of practical low-carbon fuel solutions while helping to overcome the technical, commercial and regulatory barriers to scale.
During 2025 and 2026, OGCI published a series of studies examining the role of hydrogen, biofuels and e-fuels in reducing transport emissions.
The reports included Safety of Hydrogen for Transport, Carbon Sources for E-fuels, The Road Ahead for Hydrogen Powered Mobility and Biomass for Marine.
These reports highlight the complexity of decarbonizing transport and the need to consider a portfolio of solutions, including hydrogen and hydrogen-based fuels for hard-to-abate applications alongside sustainable biofuels and synthetic fuels for aviation and shipping.
OGCI’s research also explored how biofuels can deliver near-term emissions reductions in the maritime sector by using existing vessels and infrastructure, while identifying the policies, feedstocks and supply chains needed to support wider adoption.
Complementary research on carbon sources for e-fuels highlighted the importance of using sustainable sources of CO2 to deliver enhanced lifecycle emissions reductions and support the development of scalable synthetic fuels.
Recognizing that safety and public confidence are critical to deployment, OGCI partnered with technical experts to examine the safe use of hydrogen in transport.
The results help point to measures to support the development of widely available rules and operating practices, helping policymakers, industry and regulators enable a wider use of hydrogen where it can deliver the greatest measurable emissions mitigations.
OGCI’s bio-oil blending project, developed with Concawe and CMA CGM, is an important initiative in the Low-Carbon Mobility workstream.
Nguya FLNG Credit: Eni
SCALING RENEWABLE FUELS
Repsol expands renewable diesel production
In 2026, Repsol began operations at a transformed unit in its Puertollano Industrial Complex capable of producing 200,000 tonnes of renewable diesel annually from agricultural and food waste. The facility is expected to avoid around 700,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year compared with conventional fuels on a lifecycle basis.
Repsol Puertollano Renewable Fuels Unit, 2026
Credit: Repsol
Darcy Ribeiro LNG Tanker
Credit: Petrobras
LOWER-EMISSION FUELS FOR SHIPPING
Petrobras trials biodiesel-blended bunker fuels and starts commercialization
Petrobras successfully completed sea trials using marine fuels blended with biodiesel. Testing confirmed the technical viability of biodiesel-blended fuels in commercial shipping operations and supported regulatory approval for commercial sales in Brazil.
The workstream is assessing whether sustainable bio-oils and bio-crudes can be blended with conventional marine fuels as near drop-in solutions that use existing infrastructure while reducing well-to-wake emissions.
The team has made good progress, agreeing a pathway from sample sourcing and fuel testing through to engine trials, ship trials and standardization, while attracting interest from partners across the maritime value chain.
Through this work, OGCI is helping build the evidence base needed to help accelerate investment, inform policy and support the transition to low-carbon transport systems.
OGCI is helping to establish a widely available technical basis for the refinery co-processing of renewable crudes and other non-conventional refinery feedstocks to produce lower carbon fuels.
Through successive phases of work, OGCI has played a convening role by bringing together member company expertise, external specialists, and technology providers to identify the key properties, classifications, and processing considerations needed to support wider refinery co-processing.
This technical foundation has now been taken forward by The American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) which is developing a non-binding ASTM Guide for non-conventional refinery feedstocks that should provide useful guidance for suppliers, technology providers and refiners as the industry works to scale bio-oil pathways and build confidence in future low-carbon fuel value chains.
TURNING WASTE INTO BIOMETHANE
Shell expands biomethane production in Denmark
Shell has completed the redevelopment of its Aarhus Biogas facility in Denmark, increasing its capacity to process agricultural, household and food industry waste into biomethane. The upgraded facility can produce around 20 million cubic metres of biomethane annually and inject renewable gas directly into Denmark’s gas grid.
Natural climate solutions
Natural climate solutions have the potential to make an important contribution to climate change mitigation while supporting biodiversity, ecosystem resilience and sustainable development.
Some studies suggest they have the potential to deliver at least a third of the cost-effective CO2 mitigation needed to limit the rise in global average temperatures to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.4
This mitigation potential could be enhanced and unlocked commercially through the issuance of verified carbon credits (VCCs) on the voluntary carbon market (VCM).
Aerial view of the Amazonia rainforest and blackwater river near Novo Airão City, Brazil
Credit: Adobe Stock
To help realize this potential at scale, OGCI published its Position Paper on Carbon Credits in November 2025, setting out the opportunity offered by the VCM to support the achievement of global and individual companies’ climate goals, while channelling private finance into both natureand engineered-based solutions.
The paper also underscores the need to address the barriers currently preventing its broader and faster adoption.
Petrobras scales Amazon restoration through ProFloresta+
Petrobras and BNDES launched ProFloresta+ to support large-scale ecological restoration in the Amazon through the purchase of high-integrity restoration carbon credits. In 2025-2026, the programme contracted 5 million carbon credits through its first public tender, supporting projects expected to plant more than 25 million native trees and create around 4,500 green jobs.
OGCI extends partnership with IETA
OGCI also continued its multi-year partnership with the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) through ALMA Brasil (Accelerating Land Use Mitigation in the Amazon).
The ALMA Brasil initiative launched in 2023 to advance nesting frameworks that improve alignment between privately run forest conservation projects and state-level jurisdictional REDD+ programs in Brazil.
At COP30, the coalition published findings from Phase III of the project, using the State of Pará as a case study due to its relevance to land-use mitigation and its evolving institutional landscape.
The report reflects two years of capacity building efforts, drawing on a strong multi-stakeholder engagement that includes standard bodies, project developers, civil society, international organizations and governments.
Alongside this work, OGCI continued to collaborate with industry partners to promote best practice and develop guidance for project developers and buyers, helping build the technical foundations and market confidence needed to scale high-integrity natural climate solutions and support greater investment.
- Low-carbon investment is defined in OGCI’s Reporting Framework as information related to companies’ money spent on low-carbon projects, acquisitions of companies working on low-carbon solutions and R&D focusing on low carbon technologies. See OGCI’s Reporting Framework for more detail.
- IEA Transport – Energy System – IEA and Global Carbon Budget report
- IPCC 6th Assessment Report, Chapter 10: Transport
- 2017 paper from the proceedings of the Natural Academy of Science on natural climate solutions. Natural climate solutions (NCS) | OGCI Natural Climate Solutions, PNAS, October 2017