April 7 (Reuters) - Occidental Petroleum's OXY.N unit 1PointFive said on Monday the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had approved its application to sequester carbon dioxide captured from its direct air capture $(DAC)$ facility in Texas.

Stratos, the DAC facility, is a joint venture between the U.S. shale firm's carbon capture and sequestration unit and asset manager BlackRock BLK.N. Expected to commence commercial operations later this year, Stratos is among the world's largest DAC facilities.

Carbon capture, a process that involves storing CO2 from industrial activities underground, is being adopted by oil companies such as Chevron CVX.N, Exxon Mobil XOM.N and TotalEnergies TTEF.PA as a strategy to decrease emissions and tackle climate change.

The permits were issued by the agency under the Safe Drinking Water Act's Underground Injection Control program, the company said.

"This is a significant milestone for the company as we are continuing to develop vital infrastructure that will help the United States achieve energy security," said Occidental CEO Vicki Hollub.

Located in Ector County, Texas, Stratos is designed to capture up to 500,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually when fully operational.

Last year 1PointFive entered agreements to sell carbon credits, provided by Stratos, to companies such as AT&T T.N and Microsoft MSFT.O.

(Reporting by Vallari Srivastava in Bengaluru; Editing by Mohammed Safi Shamsi)

((Srivastava.Vallari@thomsonreuters.com;))