Shell veterans launch ZeroSix carbon credit solution to keep fossil fuels in the ground

'We believe the voluntary carbon market can be a critical driver of fossil fuel emissions reductions. But the market must improve in size, quality, and transparency to ensure carbon offsets are actually an effective tool. ZeroSix will contribute to all three areas of growth and improvement...'

HOUSTON, Texas (PRWEB) November 03, 2022 Today, the founders of carbon credit solution provider ZeroSix have announced the company's official launch. The newly formed greentech venture aims to unlock a new gigatonne (GT) per year of greenhouse gas emissions reductions by turning protected oil and gas reserves into carbon offsets available on the voluntary carbon market (VCM). The company will create accurate, additional, permanent, and transparent carbon credits that are created, tracked, traded, and retired on a decentralized, digital platform. In tandem with today's launch, ZeroSix has released a detailed white paper that explores their unique approach.

ZeroSix was formed by a team of energy and digital technology professionals with extensive backgrounds in the oil and gas sector, as well as various sustainability initiatives, including veterans from Shell and other oil majors. The founders chose to use their expertise to develop a climate-positive solution to leave fossil fuel reserves in the ground. Their approach incentivizes oil and gas producers to permanently shut in their most-polluting wells early and turn unextracted, unburned oil and gas into high-integrity carbon credits generated via ZeroSix's operating system.

The opportunity for positive climate impact using ZeroSix's solution is substantial: the U.S. has more than 850,000 low-rate wells still in operation. ZeroSix analysis shows that, in the U.S. alone, early retirement of bottom-quartile wells could avoid 1 GT CO2e per year — greater than the annual total GHG emissions of Germany, the world's fourth-largest economy. In addition, above and beyond the avoided emissions that would have resulted from direct fossil fuel combustion, many of these bottom-quartile wells also represent a disproportionate opportunity for further climate mitigation. For example, a subset of wells accounting for less than 1% of U.S. oil and gas production contributes an outsized 11% of sector methane emissions.

'The world needs an additional 23 gigatonnes of carbon emissions reduced each year to reach the goals set by the Paris Climate Accord, and the large majority of global emissions are tied to the burning of fossil fuels,' said Martijn Dekker, CEO of ZeroSix. 'We believe the voluntary carbon market can be a critical driver of fossil fuel emissions reductions. But the market must improve in size, quality, and transparency to ensure carbon offsets are actually an effective tool. ZeroSix will contribute to all three areas of growth and improvement as we work to bring the world closer to net-zero.'

As the validity and impact of various carbon offsets comes under increased scrutiny worldwide, ZeroSix has developed an approach to creating carbon credits that will ensure: Accuracy: ZeroSix will rely on the SEC standard for calculating emissions related to oil and gas reserves in order to arrive at precise avoided emissions measurements.

• Additionality: Keeping oil and gas reserves from proven producing wells in the ground avoids all emissions related to their potential surfacing, processing, and consumption.
• Permanence: The shutting in of oil and gas wells is irreversible.
• Transparency: The decentralized, digital platform used by ZeroSix allows anyone to easily verify carbon credits.

'Effective climate action is impossible without participation from all sides. That is why our approach invites oil and gas producers to be partners in the climate action solution, giving them a new way to ‘mine' their reserves by simply leaving them untouched,' said Ondrej Sestak, head of engineering at ZeroSix. 'Meanwhile, corporate leaders will have a new opportunity to invest with confidence and unparalleled transparency in a market forecasted to reach $50B annually by 2030.'

The ZeroSix solution is built on blockchain and other decentralized digital technologies. The system uses a ZeroSix token, with one token representing one tonne CO2e. This tokenized system provides a shared, immutable, tamper-proof digital record of events and transactions related to the creation, sale, and retirement of carbon credits. The solution is anchored to the Energy Web Chain and the broader Energy Web technology stack, which was built by and for the global energy sector. The public Energy Web Chain is used by renewable energy developers, utilities, electric vehicle companies, and others to accelerate the clean energy transition with robust digital solutions.

ZeroSix's operating system will launch at the end of 2022, and the company will continue to advance the ecosystem of potential suppliers and buyers of carbon credits as it aims for a full platform launch in 2023. Beyond the initial focus on oil and gas, ZeroSix plans to scale its solution to take on other high-quality emissions reduction projects, including other hydrocarbons and CO2 removal technologies like direct air capture.

Oil and gas producers interested in becoming a part of the climate solution by turning inefficient hydrocarbon wells into zero-carbon assets should contact [email protected]. For interested buyers of future carbon credits, learn more at http://www.zerosix.co. Finally, to explore ZeroSix's unique approach to creating carbon offsets and the digital solution making it possible, download the full white paper at http://www.zerosix.co.

About ZeroSix

For 150 years of the modern oil and gas industry, the focus has been on surfacing, refining, and burning fossil fuels. The next era of fossil fuel 'prospecting' is focused on the dual economic and climate opportunity of 'harvesting' unburned barrels of oil and Mcf of natural gas as permanently protected carbon credits. Our platform and strict protocol rooted in accuracy, additionality, permanence, and transparency unlocks a pathway to making oil & gas producers a stronger part of the climate action solution, while giving voluntary carbon market buyers the confidence to invest. We're introducing the world to a revolutionary new kind of carbon credit—an upstream carbon offset rooted in fossil fuels that never burn, by incentivizing producers to shut wells early and turn unburned oil and gas into high-integrity carbon credits. Learn more at http://www.zerosix.co.