ExxonMobil has unveiled plans for a giant $100 billion (£71.8bn) carbon capture and storage (CCS) project in Texas.

The plan is to build infrastructure in Houston to capture carbon emitted from plants along the Houston Ship Channel and permanently store it in an underwater reservoir, thousands of feet below the seafloor of the Gulf of Mexico.

The project is forecast to store about 50 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year by 2030 and 100 million tonnes by 2040.

The US oil major said the construction of the ambitious plan requires the collective support of industry and government.

A US Department of Energy analysis estimates the US Gulf Coast could have enough storage capacity to hold 500 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide.

That is equivalent to more than 130 years of the country’s total industrial and power generation emissions.

Joe Blommaert, President of ExxonMobil Low Carbon Solutions, said: “Meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement is a big challenge, requiring new technologies, new policies and new ways of thinking.

“A Houston CCS Innovation Zone could be a giant step in the right direction.”