Bruce Niemeyer

President of Shale & Tight, Chevron Corporation

Search every verified Bruce Niemeyer interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Bruce Niemeyer, as Chevron’s vice president of strategy and sustainability in 2021, discussed the company’s approach to scaling carbon capture and storage (CCS) and low-carbon technologies. He stated that Chevron has the “staying power” to invest in long-term projects like CCS, citing the Gorgon project in Australia as an example. Niemeyer described the Mendota project in California, which he said would use waste biomass from almond trees to generate electricity and permanently sequester captured carbon underground, creating negative emissions. He noted that the biggest technical challenges for Mendota were the gasifier’s ability to process waste biomass and the use of turbines not previously used to capture 100% of carbon dioxide at scale. Niemeyer also said that policy support, such as California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard and the federal 45Q tax credit, was essential for making such projects economically feasible. Niemeyer emphasized that carbon capture is “important to the future” and that scaling CCS from 40 million tons per year to five to ten gigatons by 2050 would require a “hundred-fold scale-up.” He stated that the most effective carbon capture technologies currently focus on concentrated CO2 streams, while direct air capture remains a longer-term challenge due to energy and cost requirements. Niemeyer noted that Chevron manages carbon pricing risk and volatility through internal models that forecast carbon prices regionally and incorporate them into project evaluations. He also highlighted collaboration with Schlumberger and Microsoft on cloud-based digital workflows to improve efficiency in oil and gas and carbon capture projects.