How does the carbon capture work? From what I found "CCUS-EOR" is basically using CO2 to extract more oil out of a reservoir. Which sounds really questionable if the math (EDIT: "doesn't") works out to a significant plus.

If they mostly produce plastics and chemicals that can be sequestered afterwards, then it's not that bad compared to burning fossil fuels.

I'm guessing it's something along these lines https://www.nature.com/articles/s41929-022-00775-6

Thanks super interesting, industrial sugar from CO2!

Alright wow, searching for "ethylene carbon capture CNPC" you find a better article explaining it: https://www.hydrocarbonprocessing.com/news/2026/07/cnpc-launches-chinas-first-full-chain-green-low-carbon-ethylene-project/

Apparently they capture low concentation flue gases from cracking(?) and then convert that into ethylene (widespread plastic precursor) using solar power. Which is nice because it's kind of like a battery, storing energy as chemical energy. This actually could work to make CO2 emitting industrial processes green, as the carbon can then be recycled or sequestered as plastic in the end. This should be significantly better than trying to pump CO2 into the ground hoping it stays there.

yeah it's a really clever system