We track air emissions released to the atmosphere from our upstream and downstream operations including routine and non-routine activities: Greenhouse gas emissions
The direct GHG emissions from facilities we operate were 76 million tonnes on a carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent basis in 2014, which is higher than 73 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent reported in 2013. The main reasons for this increase were the restart of production at Majnoon in Iraq following completion of refurbishment activities and startup of the new Central Processing Facility in September 2013 and higher production at the Pearl GTL plant
120 90 60 30 0 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14
DIRECT GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS
million tonnes CO2 equivalent
05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14
30
0 15
FLARING – UPSTREAM
million tonnes CO2 equivalent
400 300 200
05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14
100
FRESH WATER WITHDRAWN
million cubic metres in Qatar, leading to increased operational flaring
of excess waste gas. Excluding flaring our GHG emissions fell due to improved energy efficiency in many of our operations, the divestment of the Geelong refinery in Australia and unplanned downtime at our Moerdijk chemical plant in the Netherlands.
Around 45% of our GHG emissions came from the refineries and chemical plants in our Downstream business. The production of oil and gas in our Upstream business accounted for around 50% of our GHG emissions and our shipping activities for less than 3%. We continue to work on improving operational performance and energy efficiency to reduce GHG emissions.
The indirect GHG emissions from the energy we purchased (electricity, heat and steam) were 10 million tonnes on a CO2 equivalent basis in 2014, consistent with 2013. We estimate that the CO2 emissions from the use of our refinery and natural gas products were around 600 million tonnes in 2014. Further information on GHG emissions is available at www.shell.com/ghg.
Methane
In 2014, methane emissions contributed less than 5% to our direct GHG emissions on a CO2 equivalent basis. The majority of our methane emissions relate to associated gas from oil production. We are working to manage our methane emissions as part of our programme on GHG management.
Volatile organic compounds
Our emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) increased in 2014 compared with 2013. This was mainly due to increased production in Majnoon, Iraq. We expect our VOC emissions to decrease in 2015 as a result of our efforts to reduce flaring and venting.
FLARING
We believe that flaring and venting (releasing gas to the atmosphere) of natural gas associated with oil production should be minimised as this is a waste of valuable resources, increases GHG emissions and contributes to climate change. Our HSSE & SP Control Framework sets out our flaring policy including the requirement for new facilities to be designed so as not to continuously flare or vent. When we acquire or become the operator of an existing facility that is already flaring or venting, it can take time before these activities can be stopped.
In our existing facilities, our policy is to reduce any continuous flaring or venting to as low a level as reasonably practical. Operational flaring occurs for safety reasons or during the start-up of Upstream facilities. We aim to minimise this operational flaring.
After several years of flaring reductions, the flaring of natural gas in our Upstream business increased in 2014 to 13.0 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent, from 7.4 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2013. This was due to increased production at Majnoon in Iraq (see page 34), in Nigeria (see page 37) and at the Pearl GTL plant in Qatar, as well as the start-up of Gumusut-Kakap in Malaysia. We are working on projects to reduce flaring at these locations. At Gumusut-Kakap we are installing equipment that will start capturing the gas for reinjection into the wells, by the end of 2015. Overall, flaring made up around 17% of the total direct GHG emissions in 2014. Iraq accounted for around 35%, Nigeria for 30%, Qatar for 13% and Malaysia for 8% of this flaring in 2014. Outside of Nigeria, Iraq and Malaysia, the few facilities that continuously flare accounted for less than 2% of our total direct GHG emissions in 2014. Some of these facilities are at ageing oil fields where the associated gas pressure is too low to
power the compressors used to gather the gas and avoid flaring. In 2014, the venting of hydrocarbons amounted to around 1% of our total direct GHG emissions.
In line with our commitment to long-term flaring reduction, we have been a member of the World Bank’s Global Gas Flaring Reduction (GGFR) partnership for many years. Through the GGFR partnership, the World Bank has developed a Zero Routine Flaring by 2030 initiative that is designed to help governments and companies end continuous flaring by 2030. We have signed up to this World Bank initiative and believe it will be an important enabler to reduce continuous flaring by bringing together governments, companies and development organisations to work collaboratively towards this common goal.
WATER
The way we manage our use of fresh water is particularly important in areas of the world where the availability of water is constrained due to limited supplies or extensive use. We assess the availability of water where we operate and design and run our facilities in ways that help reduce their water use. (See page 14).
In 2014, the amount of fresh water we used increased to 199 million cubic metres, from 198 million cubic metres in 2013. Our Downstream business accounted for over 70% of our fresh water use for the manufacture of oil products and chemicals: our Upstream operations used slightly over 25%. At our major facilities in water scarce areas, we are developing water management plans that include how our operations will minimise water use and increase water recycling. SHELL SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2014