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Oxy doubles down on DAC

April 17, 2025

Occidental quietly acquires DAC startup Holocene

Oxy doubles down on direct air capture, scooping up a second DAC startup despite political headwinds.

  • Acquisition marks Oxy’s second DAC buy in under 2 years (Carbon Engineering was first at $1.1B in 2023)

  • Holocene, founded by Stanford grads, uses amino acid-based chemistry for lower-heat CO₂ capture

  • Previously landed a 100K-ton deal with Google at $100/ton and ran a 10-ton pilot in Tennessee

  • Tech potentially cuts energy costs vs. Carbon Engineering’s natural gas process

  • Purchase comes amid Trump-era cuts to federal DAC support; consolidation expected

  • Oxy plans to combine both DAC platforms to lower costs, scale faster, and expand EOR + storage applications

Microsoft signs world’s largest carbon removal deal with AtmosClear

Microsoft locks in 6.75M tonnes of permanent CDR from Fidelis’ Louisiana BECCS facility.

  • 15-year agreement—the largest engineered carbon removal deal ever signed

  • Project to capture 680K tonnes/year using sugarcane bagasse and forest trimmings

  • Commercial operations expected by 2029; $800M+ in capex and 675 jobs projected

  • Supports Microsoft’s 2030 carbon-negative goal and revitalizes local forestry sector

Crux raises $50M Series B to scale clean energy capital markets

Lowercarbon leads latest round as Crux aims to streamline tax credit and debt transactions.

  • Total funding now $77M+; platform handles $30B+ in tax credit deal flow

  • 630+ market participants and 70+ tax credit transfers to date

  • Expanding debt marketplace and launching AI tools for deal execution

  • Targeting 1,000+ counterparties by year-end to unlock faster capital deployment

novoMOF raises CHF 4.4M to commercialize space-efficient CO₂ capture tech

GTT Strategic Ventures backs MOF specialist for low-cost, scalable carbon capture.

  • MOFs enable selective CO₂ removal at <€100/ton, with maritime and transport use cases

  • Investment supports goal of capturing 6M tonnes/year by 2030

  • Founded in 2017, novoMOF is commercializing tech from Nobel-winning research

  • Materials ideal for constrained spaces: ships, trucks, and point-source industrial emitters

Net Power shakes up executive team amid clean power ramp-up

COO and CFO changes.

  • President/COO Brian Allen and CFO Akash Patel to exit May 1

  • Marc Horstman (former Head of Product Development) named COO

  • CEO Danny Rice adds interim CFO duties

  • Net Power is commercializing its gas-to-clean-electricity cycle for utility-scale deployment

Kosmos ships first LNG cargo from Greater Tortue Ahmeyim

Milestone cargo signals Mauritania and Senegal’s debut as LNG-exporting nations.

  • First LNG shipment loaded: ~174,000 cubic meters onto British Sponsor carrier

  • Second shipment already queued near the terminal

  • Follows gas production start in late 2024 and LNG output in Feb 2025

  • FLNG vessel capacity: 2.7 MTPA

Technip Energies to design Australia’s first alcohol-to-jet SAF plant

New Queensland facility to produce 102M liters of SAF annually using bioethanol.

  • Technip awarded FEED contract for Jet Zero’s Project Ulysses in Townsville

  • Targets 102M liters of SAF and 11M liters of renewable diesel by 2028

  • Uses Technip’s Hummingbird and LanzaJet’s alcohol-to-jet technologies

  • Project could cut aviation emissions by up to 70% and boost energy security

U.S. Energy Dev. Corp. makes $390M Permian buy, ups credit line to $300M

Largest deal in company history expands drilling footprint across Reeves and Ward Counties.

  • Acquires 20,000 net acres with strong PDP and multi-bench inventory

  • $390M acquisition sets stage for $1B investment push in 2025

  • 2024 deployment: $850M in Permian Basin assets

  • Upsized Citibank-led credit facility from $165M → $300M (max capacity $500M)

  • USEDC has invested over $3B in 4,000 wells across 13 states and Canada

DISCLAIMER: None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research.