CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Kleberg County is getting a new economic powerhouse with the announcement of a new direct air capture facility in the area.
The plant will remove carbon emissions directly from our atmosphere.
"We're excited about job creation," said Kleberg County Judge Rudy Madrid. "We're super excited about education. and we're making a deal with A&M-Kingsville so they can handle all the certifications. If you want to come work for Oxy, come to Kleberg County. "
Madrid signed the agreement with 1PointFive to bring the carbon capture hub to South Texas, specifically at the historic King Ranch, which spans 825,000 acres, making it one of the worlds largest ranches.
King Ranch CEO Robert Hodgen said the plant will help further the ranch's deep-rooted history.
"We really see that as a continuation of King Ranch's century long commitment to managing its natural resources," he said.
The lease agreement will provide 106,000 subsurface acres to support the direct air capture process. 1PointFive received a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy for the creation of the hub. Director of Projects Trey Fournier said the hub can help revolutionize energy processing.
"Every breath we take there is a small percentage of CO₂ that's in that. This is a facility that captures that and puts it through a large industrial processes," he said.
Kleberg County beat out other possible locations. One of the things that attracted project leaders was the area's workforce.
"As you look at this area, there are a lot of transferable skills that exist, where jobs are in say petrochemical industry, a lot of those skills are directly transferable to things need to operate," he said.
Madrid said the new venture will have a major economic impact to the area including over 2,000 new jobs from construction to operations, and it will also include educational opportunities.
"Excited about job creation, super excited about education, making a deal with A&M-Kingsville to be the body to handle the certifications, if you want to work with Oxy, come to Kleberg County. working with workforce solutions," he said.
This will be the second location in Texas.
The first direct air capture facility is currently under construction in Ector County near Odessa. The one here will able to capture 30 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, equivalent to the greenhouse gas emissions form over 6.6 million gasoline powered cars.
Oxy is currently working on the front-end engineering and design for the project and preparing to drill test wells to gather geologic data required to obtain a Class VI well permit to safely sequester CO2.
When asked about the construction timeline, Judge Madrid said, "we're looking at groundbreaking probably mid next year."
However, William Fitzgerald with Occidental Corporate Affairs said they have not officially announced a groundbreaking date for the project.
To limit traffic at King Ranch, the county is currently working to bring an industrial park to Kleberg County for an employee park and ride and education training center.
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