The chief executive of Chevron Corp., the US oil major, has spoken of the company’s interest in the USA's growing geothermal sector, among other alternative and renewable energies.
The head of one of the world’s largest oil companies, Mike Wirth acknowledged his interest in everything from carbon capture to hydrogen, as well as geothermal, during a recent industry event.
Wirth was speaking at the recent WSJ CEO Council, and was cited in an article afterwards by the Wall Street Journal newspaper.
During the event, the Chevron CEO touched on various new renewable energy business opportunities, alongside plans to grow its traditional oil and gas activities.
Other major Big Oil corporations, including ExxonMobil, are also actively exploring new and alternative energy technology opportunities, including lithium.
Cited by the WSJ article, Wirth noted that geothermal offers “real promise” despite some of the sector’s drilling methods and technologies only being at an early stage.
According to the article, Wirth said Chevron hopes to leverage its experience “to advance and scale novel geothermal energy, which can potentially allow access to a widespread baseload, non-intermittent resource that can complement and add capacity to meet the world’s growing renewable-power demand.”
Interest in the geothermal energy sector in the USA has been broadly encouraged in recent months by the Trump administration, a keen champion of the nation’s oil and gas industry.
In the WSJ article, Wirth noted that all energy sources — from oil and gas, to coal, nuclear, as well as geothermal and other renewable alternatives — will be in focus against a backdrop of rising global energy demand.
“There’s no silver bullet, we need it all,” he said at the conference, cited by WSJ.
Other major industry players, including traditional drilling and technology service providers to the oil and gas sector, such as Baker Hughes and Saipem, have also expressed an interest in the potential of geothermal energy and are exploring early opportunities.