Microsoft activates Gulf Coast CDR market

The Low Carbon Briefing

April 16, 2025

EPA approved 4 Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) plans. The recipients will be able to monetize CO2 via 45Q for CO2 sequestration.
- ExxonMobil’s Shute Creek
- Tallgrass’ Eastern Wyoming Sequestration Hub Juniper I-1 Well
- Northwind Midstream Partners’ Titan Treating Facility
- Targa’s Bull Moose Gas Plant
BKV - NuQuest Joint Venture, High West Sequestration, submitted a 5 well Class VI permit in St. Charles Parish, Louisiana. The JV acquired 21,000+ acres from the State of Louisiana in 2023 for development.
Contango Resource’s Lost Cabin Gas Plant is seeking nearby Class II permitting to monetize CO2 rather than selling for EOR, actively permitting a CO2 pipeline with the BLM

Heidelberg Materials’ Padeswood cement plant in Flintshire, North Wales will capture up to 800,000 metric tones of CO2 per year
ENI will transport the CO2 through the HyNet West pipeline for sequestration in Liverpool Bay
The carbon capture facility intends to be operational by 2029
Worley and MHI were awarded FEED in February 2024 to implement the carbon capture technology

Microsoft will purchase 6.75 million metric tons over 15 years with Fidelis’ backed Atmos Clear.
The 680,000 mt/year Bio Energy Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) project is being developed in the Port of Greater Baton Rouge with construction starting in 2026 and commercial operational date of 2029.
Fidelis’ initial project was named Grön Fuels in November 2020, a 65,000 barrel per day renewable SAF project, but the lease was amended in January. Fidelis’ shift to the voluntary credit market has been a common theme with biomass-to-X projects over the past 2 years with challenging offtake and higher than anticipated project Capex.
Fidelis nor Atmos Clear have identified a CO2 transport and storage partner. The closest partner would be ExxonMobil but others are developing advantaged sequestration nearby including Tenaska’s 8 well sequestration asset Live Oak CCS Hub in West Baton Rouge and Iberville. In addition, Fidelis’ carbon storage portfolio company, Capio Sequestration, was also developing a nearby sequestration in Iberville. However, the project seems dormant from the lack of news and project development.

Sweden’s district heating operator Öresundskraft Kraft & Värme signed a 210,000 mt per year storage agreement with Greensand to progress commercial discussions which signifies a landmark agreement between EU members for cross-border CO2 trade
Öresundskraft’s ‘Innozhero’ Waste-to-Energy carbon capture project received €54M in funding in October 2024 from the EU Innovation Fund for project development
- Carbon capture is expected to be operational by 2028
INEOS, Harbour Energy and Nordsøfonden’s flagship Greensand project, located offshore Denmark, will be the first CO₂ hub in the European Union to support regional carbon capture initiatives by providing CO₂ transportation and storage services.
- 2023: Greensand completed its pilot project, demonstrating the feasibility of cross-border, offshore CO2 storage across the full value chain
- 2025/2026: 0.4 Mtpa operational injection capacity
- 2030: 8.0 Mtpa full operational capacity
This announcement follows a November 2024 agreement between Project Greensand and Royal Wagenborg to provide CO₂ carriers for maritime transport.

The United Nations specialized agency with responsibility for safety and security of global shipping approved long anticipated and landmark draft regulations that will shape global shipping fuel and emissions this week
These measures, set to be formally adopted in October 2025 and enter into force in 2027, will apply to large ocean-going ships over 5,000 gross tonnage, which account for 85% of the sector's CO₂ emissions.
Two key components of the agreement:
- Global Fuel Standard: Ships must progressively reduce their annual GHG fuel intensity, calculated using a "well-to-wake" approach, which considers emissions throughout the entire fuel lifecycle.
- Global Economic Measure: Ships emitting above established fuel intensity thresholds will be required to acquire remedial units to offset their emissions. Conversely, vessels utilizing zero or near-zero GHG technologies will be eligible for financial incentives.
What will change? Low carbon project developers have been seeking IMO regulatory guidance to be able to sell into this hard-to-abate sector. The low carbon pathway is uncertain and multiple verticals are jockeying to be the ‘solution of choice’. Avenues include Methanol (e-Methanol, blue methanol, bio-based methanol, among others), LNG (diluted with RNG, or e-LNG), and Ammonia. With a regulatory framework in place, purchasers can now distinguish low carbon fuels based off of carbon intensity, price, and supply certainty.

Technology licensor Topsoe will provide methanol synthesis technology while Worley will develop the green hydrogen facilities and EPC work.
Partnership plans to develop multiple facilities each producing 600 tonnes per day (219,000 mt per year)
Strategically placed in the Midwest to access low cost of capture and abundant biogenic CO2 from ethanol facilities
Proposed CO2 pipelines in the Midwest including Summit Carbon Solution and Tallgrass’ Trailblazer also enable e-Fuel production by being able to site in preferred locations nearby power, water, and product takeaway infrastructure.

NYK to build first dual-fuel Methanol VLCC for Idemitsu Tanker
Norne Thorning Storage gets Danish licence to explore CO₂ storage in Jutland
AIR Company successfully tested synthetic diesel derived from CO2 utilization with the Department of Defense.
ENEOS provides $100M in funding for C2X’s bio-methanol facility in International Paper’s decommissioned Rapides Parish Pulp and Paper plant