TGS DAC Data Strategy, Enabling 1.5 Mt CO₂/yr Projects by 1 Point Five, and 873% Market Growth (2025-2026)

Industry Adoption and TGS’s Pivot to Carbon Capture Markets

TGS ASA is executing a strategic diversification from its core oil and gas data business to become a critical enabler for new energy markets, positioning its subsurface intelligence as a foundational component for the carbon capture sector. While the company has not announced direct participation in Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology development, its strategy focuses on de-risking the most significant bottleneck for DAC projects: permanent geological storage. This positions TGS to capitalize on the explosive growth of the DAC market without shouldering the high capital costs and technological risks of capture hardware developers.

TGS Strategic Pivot to New Energy Markets

The company’s strategic realignment is centered on leveraging its extensive geoscience data library and analytical expertise to serve the emerging carbon storage industry. Instead of competing with over 140 active DAC technology developers, TGS is focusing on the “S” in DACCS (Direct Air Capture with Carbon Storage), where its core competencies provide a durable competitive advantage. This approach allows TGS to build a resilient, high-margin business line that is complementary to the entire carbon removal ecosystem, serving DAC operators, project developers, and investors who require reliable site characterization and verification.

• Between 2021 and 2024, TGS’s public focus remained predominantly on its traditional oil and gas exploration services.
• In 2025, the company’s annual report and strategic communications signal a clear expansion into new energy markets, including carbon capture, built on its pillars of Value, Resilience, and Knowledge.
• This pivot involves repurposing decades of subsurface data, originally collected for hydrocarbon exploration, to identify and qualify saline aquifers and depleted reservoirs for secure, long-term CO₂ sequestration.
• The strategy avoids direct competition with hardware-focused firms like Carbon Clean and instead targets the data-intensive services required for project bankability and regulatory approval.

DAC Market Inflection Point in 2025

The DAC market is experiencing a period of rapid capacity expansion, creating significant demand for the storage-enablement services TGS provides. This growth is driven by aggressive corporate climate targets and substantial government incentives, which are pulling DAC technologies from the prototype phase toward commercial-scale deployment. However, the viability of these large-scale projects is entirely dependent on securing proven geological storage capacity, a critical dependency that underpins the TGS strategy.

• The DAC market is projected to see an 873% increase in operational capacity from 59 kt CO₂/year in 2024 to 569 kt CO₂/year in 2025.
• Major projects from industry leaders like 1 Point Five and Carbon Engineering are each targeting capture capacities of up to 1.5 Mt CO₂/yr, amplifying the need for large-scale, verifiable storage solutions.
• Despite this growth, the technology’s commercial cost remains a significant hurdle, with estimates ranging from $400 to over $1, 000 per tonne of CO₂, reinforcing the need for cost-effective and de-risked project development, particularly around storage.

North America DAC Market to Explode to $8 Billion by 2035
The North American Direct Air Capture (DAC) market is projected for explosive growth, soaring from $67.36 million in 2025 to nearly $8 billion by 2035. This signifies an extraordinary 118-fold expansion, underscoring DAC’s critical role in carbon removal strategies.

(Source: Precedence Research — via Direct Air Capture Market Size to Hit USD 18,766.44 Million by 2035)

$3.1 B in DOE Funding and TGS Capital Allocation Strategy

Massive government investment, particularly in the United States, is the primary catalyst for the DAC market’s expansion, creating a well-funded customer base for enabling services like those offered by TGS. While TGS has not disclosed direct investments in DAC capture facilities, its capital is strategically allocated toward enhancing the data assets and analytical tools required to support the government-backed buildout of carbon storage infrastructure. This allows TGS to benefit from public funding without directly receiving it, as DAC developers use grants and tax credits to finance all components of their projects, including subsurface evaluation.

Federal Incentives Driving DAC Viability

The economic feasibility of current DAC projects is almost entirely dependent on policy support, which lowers the effective cost of carbon removal and stimulates private investment. In the U.S., the combination of direct funding programs and generous tax credits has created the world’s most active market for carbon removal, driving demand for all related services, including geological site assessment. Companies like BKV Corporation are actively building businesses around these incentives.

• In 2025, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $3.1 billion in available funding for carbon management technologies, including the design and construction of DAC facilities.
• The U.S. 45 Q tax credit, offering up to $180 per tonne for CO₂ captured via DAC and permanently stored, is a powerful driver, with 98% of all DAC credit purchases in 2024 occurring in the U.S.
• These incentives are projected to help grow the DAC market from around $250 million in 2025 to over $3.3 billion by 2033.

TGS Investment in Data Assets for Carbon Storage

TGS’s investment strategy appears focused on internal capability development rather than external project finance. The company’s expenditures are likely directed at enhancing its existing data library with attributes relevant to carbon storage and developing proprietary software for site characterization, monitoring, and verification. This positions TGS to sell high-value data-as-a-service (Daa S) products to the growing number of DAC project developers, many of whom lack in-house geoscience expertise.

• TGS’s 2025 financial reports emphasize investments related to the PGS acquisition and its core energy data business, with no specific CAPEX or OPEX figures broken out for DAC or carbon capture.
• The company’s ongoing projects, such as its ocean-bottom node (OBN) surveys in the Gulf of Mexico, generate data that is dually valuable for both hydrocarbon exploration and carbon storage site evaluation.
• Future investments will likely target the development of specialized “carbon atlases” or storage potential maps for high-demand regions, providing off-the-shelf intelligence to accelerate project development cycles for DAC operators.

Table: Select Public Funding and Market Forecasts for Direct Air Capture (2025)

US Market Focus, TGS and the Influence of the 45 Q Credit

The geographic concentration of the DAC market in the United States, driven by unparalleled policy support, aligns directly with TGS’s significant operational history and vast data holdings in North America. The 45 Q tax credit has made the U.S. the most attractive region globally for DAC project development, creating a localized and intense demand for geological storage solutions in basins where TGS possesses deep subsurface knowledge.

United States Dominance in DAC Deployment

The U.S. has established itself as the undisputed center of the global DAC industry, accounting for the vast majority of investment, project development, and carbon credit sales. Federal policies have effectively created a robust domestic market for carbon removal, incentivizing developers to site projects in close proximity to suitable geological formations for sequestration, such as those in the Gulf Coast and Permian Basin. This regional focus is apparent in the strategies of companies like Inpex Corp, which are looking to the U.S. and Australia for large-scale CCS projects.

• In 2024, the United States accounted for 98% of all forward purchases of DAC-generated carbon credits, confirming its market leadership.
• The DOE’s Regional DAC Hubs program is channeling billions of dollars into projects located in specific regions, such as Texas and Louisiana, which have favorable geology for CO₂ storage.
• The concentration of activity simplifies market entry for service providers, allowing them to focus resources on a few key geographic areas with high commercial potential.

TGS Subsurface Data in Key US Basins

TGS’s existing data library, one of the largest in the world, is particularly dense in key U.S. regions like the Gulf of Mexico, the Permian Basin, and other onshore basins now being targeted for carbon storage. This existing asset gives the company a significant first-mover advantage in providing the essential geological intelligence that DAC project developers need to secure financing and permits. The company can monetize decades of investment in seismic and well data by repurposing it for the carbon storage market.

• TGS has an extensive history of conducting large-scale seismic surveys, including OBN projects, in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, an area considered a prime location for large-volume CO₂ sequestration.
• The company’s data can be used to map saline aquifers, assess their capacity and injectivity, and identify any potential risks such as fault lines that could compromise storage integrity.
• By offering this data through tailored analytics and subscription services, TGS provides a scalable and capital-efficient way to serve the DAC market, leveraging its strongest existing assets.

TGS Enabling TRL 6 DAC Technology via Storage De-Risking (2025)

Direct Air Capture technology largely resides at a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of 6, signifying that while it has been proven at a prototype scale, it is not yet mature for widespread, cost-effective commercial operation. The primary barrier to advancing DAC to higher TRL levels and achieving bankability is not just the cost of capture but the uncertainty and risk associated with permanent CO₂ storage. TGS’s strategic focus on providing subsurface intelligence directly addresses this critical challenge, acting as a key enabler for the entire industry to mature.

DAC Technology Readiness and Cost Hurdles

As of 2025, the DAC industry is defined by high operational costs and technologies that are still being refined for large-scale application. The transition from pilot projects to gigatonne-scale removal requires significant cost reduction and operational validation, but a key component of this is proving that the captured CO₂ can be stored safely and permanently. Without verified storage, the capture technology itself cannot be considered commercially viable.

• Most commercial DAC technologies, including both liquid solvent and solid sorbent systems, are at TRL 6, meaning they have been demonstrated in a relevant environment but face challenges in scaling.
• Operational costs in 2025 remain high, estimated between $400 and $600 per tonne of CO₂, well above the levels needed for mass adoption without subsidies.
• Uncertainties in the supply chain for DAC components and policy stability present further headwinds, making it crucial for developers to de-risk every other aspect of their projects, especially storage. Different approaches are being tested, including specialized solutions for hard-to-abate sectors like shipping by firms such as Seabound.

The Role of Geoscience in Maturing DACCS

TGS’s core competency in subsurface imaging and interpretation provides the exact service needed to overcome the storage hurdle. By delivering reliable data on the capacity, integrity, and long-term behavior of potential sequestration sites, TGS enables DAC developers to secure regulatory permits, attract investment, and prove the permanence of their carbon removal credits. This service is essential for maturing the entire DAC with Carbon Storage (DACCS) value chain from TRL 6 to TRL 9 (full commercial operation).

• Before 2024, discussions around DAC often centered primarily on capture efficiency and cost, with storage treated as a secondary problem.
• By 2025, the industry and investors recognize that storage is on the critical path for any project, elevating the importance of geoscience and data analysis.
• TGS is positioned to provide the foundational “ground truth” data that validates the entire business model of DACCS projects, transforming geological uncertainty into a quantifiable asset.

SWOT Analysis for TGS’s DAC Market Enablement Strategy

TGS’s strategic pivot to serve the DAC market is defined by its ability to leverage core strengths in subsurface data to exploit a major market opportunity, though it faces weaknesses related to its lack of direct capture experience and threats from policy shifts. The change between the two periods is the validation of the carbon storage market as a viable and distinct business segment, transforming TGS’s historical data from a hydrocarbon-focused asset into a key enabler for the energy transition.

Table: SWOT Analysis for TGS’s DAC Strategy

Scenario Modeling: TGS Partnership Signals to Watch in 2026

The most critical strategic development to watch for TGS in the coming year is the announcement of its first formal partnerships with major Direct Air Capture project developers or carbon storage hub operators. Such an agreement would serve as the ultimate validation of its pivot, moving its strategy from a stated intention to a revenue-generating business line. These partnerships will likely not be acquisitions but service agreements where TGS provides the foundational subsurface characterization required for project financing and permitting.

• If TGS announces a multi-year data and analytics agreement with a leading DAC developer like 1 Point Five or a hub operator, watch for details on whether the deal is structured as a subscription service, a project-based fee, or a success-based model tied to storage capacity verification. This will signal how TGS intends to structure its commercial offerings.
• If this happens, it could trigger a series of similar deals as other DAC developers seek to secure expert geoscience partners to de-risk their own projects and compete for funding and offtake agreements. This would solidify TGS’s role as a primary data broker for the entire U.S. carbon storage market.
• Leading signals this is happening include: TGS launching a branded “Carbon Storage Solutions” division or a suite of Daa S products tailored for sequestration site screening, an increase in hiring for geoscientists with CO₂ plume modeling experience, and joint presentations with DAC companies at industry conferences.

The questions your competitors are already asking

This report covers one angle of TGS’s strategic pivot into the carbon capture market. The questions that matter most depend on your work.

• TGS carbon storage partnerships
• Repurposing seismic data for carbon sequestration
• Carbon storage capacity US Gulf Coast
• Companies using 45Q for direct air capture

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