Counting carbon emissions from your vessel operations is going to be essential as oil companies look to measure, manage and mitigate CO2 and greenhouse gas emissions from their operations and the use of their products.
Global energy companies TotalEnergies, BP and Shell have all made pledges to net zero carbon emissions. In the case of TotalEnergies, working with institutional investors, it has committed to net zero emissions from its operations by 2050 or sooner (Scopes 1 and 2), across all its production and energy products used by customers in Europe by 2050 or sooner (Scopes 1,2 and 3) and a 60% or more reduction in the average carbon intensity of energy products by its customers by 2050, phasing in reductions of 15% by 2030 and 35% by 2040.
While US-based majors ExxonMobil and Chevron have yet to make net zero-emissions pledges, they don’t need tea leaves to tell them which way the wind is blowing. ExxonMobil is under intense pressure from investors to do so, following a bruising proxy battle that saw its board add three new members from Engine No. 1, an activist hedge fund.
Now, Nordic oil and gas company Lundin Energy is accelerating its plans for carbon-neutral ambitions, pushing the clock forward. It expects to be carbon neutral across its operations by 2023 (Scopes 1, 2 and 3). Scope 3 supply-chain emissions include offshore supply vessels, logistics and offsetting travel.
Lundin Energy says its absolute operational emissions will be reduced by 50% by 2023 – faster than required by the Paris Agreement – intensifying the battle against global climate change.
Lundin Energy chief executive Nick Walker says the plan distinguishes Lundin Energy as “an industry leader and provides tangible examples of how oil and gas production can meet the needs of the energy transition, whilst also decarbonising more rapidly than the Paris agreement requires.”
To reach carbon neutrality, Lundin has invested in electrifying offshore platforms Johan Sverdup and Edvard Grieg in the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS) and three renewable energy projects. As a result, it expects that its carbon intensity will be among the oil and gas industry’s lowest —about 1 kg CO2 per barrel of oil equivalent, over 15 times better than the industry average.
“ExxonMobil is under intense pressure from investors to make a net zero-emissions pledge”
All five OSVs supporting Lundin operations under long-term charters in the NCS are battery-hybrids, four of which use LNG, too. Additionally, the vessels connect to shore power.
One of the OSV owners that support Lundin’s operation is Island Offshore. After trialling Kongsberg Digital’s Vessel Insight on four of its vessels, Island Offshore will digitalise its entire fleet of 26 vessels. By using a common platform, Island Offshore will be able to collect data that will provide visibility across its fleet to analyse and benchmark its OSVs. The operational data will allow Island Offshore to compare vessels, share experiences between vessels, identifying the most and least efficient. Using the data, the Norwegian OSV owner will be able to improve its fleet’s fuel consumption and lower emissions.
Through the Vessel Insight platform, Island Offshore also uses Yxney Maritime’s Maress application on four of its vessels. This has allowed the four OSVs to move from labour-intensive manual reporting to automated reporting.
Collecting such data is important to both regulators and charterers. But counting carbon from ‘cradle to grave’ will be a complex challenge for oil companies, without standards in place. To support oil companies and charterers, OSVs will need to accelerate their digitalisation efforts, invest in fuel-reducing technologies and start counting carbon.
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