Energy Efficiency Opportunities
Our energy efficiency story
ConocoPhillips is an integrated energy company with interests around the world.
Headquartered in Houston, the company has approximately 29,700 employees, $155 billion of assets, and $247 billion of annualised revenues.
ConocoPhillips proudly operates the Darwin LNG facility, one of only two LNG production operations in Australia, delivering liquefied natural gas, a clean fossil fuel, to customers in Japan.
ConocoPhillips have already invested $10 billion in Australian energy projects and have further investments planned through our Australia-Pacific LNG project in Queensland, Browse Basin and Goldwyer shale exploration, Sunrise LNG and the Caldita/Barossa acreage in the Timor Sea.
As a global energy company, ConocoPhillips encourages energy efficiency and the development of innovative technology to help avoid or minimise greenhouse gas emissions at all stages of the product life cycle.
For example, we have achieved more than a million-metric-ton reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from parts of our global businesses, through a variety of energy efficiency measures.
In Australia, ConocoPhillips is implementing energy efficiency through a range of practical measures at the Darwin LNG facility. We continuously assess new technologies and actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and operating costs.
Todd Creeger, ConocoPhillips Australia President-West
Darwin LNG was officially registered under Energy Efficiency Opportunities (EEO) legislation for ConocoPhillips Australia Gas Holdings Pty Ltd - ABN 69 081089170. Throughout this report, unless the context requires a different interpretation, references to ‘ConocoPhillips’ are references to ConocoPhillips
We have already invested
$10 billion in Australian energy
projects and have further
investments planned.
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Todd Creeger ABU President - West
Total ConocoPhillips Australia Gas Holdings Pty Ltd. energy use in the last financial year (assessable)
20,327,192 GJ Total Darwin LNG energy use in the last financial year (assessable) 20,319,465 GJ Energy use assessed as a percentage of total Darwin LNG energy use* 99.99 % Energy use assessed in this entity as a percentage of total ConocoPhillips
Australia energy use
99.96 %
Period over which assessment was undertaken 01/01/2008 30/06/2008 ConocoPhillips is the proud operator of the Darwin LNG facility, located at Wickham Point in the Northern Territory.
We made the final investment decision for Darwin LNG, along with the associate offshore pipeline to the Bayu-Undan facilities in 2003. We believe that the investment decision has had a very positive impact on Darwin, including many new jobs and increased local economic opportunities.
We employed 2500 people at peak construction, the vast majority of whom were Australians and achieved four million man hours without a lost-time incident.
The Darwin LNG facility has introduced several firsts in the evolution of LNG liquefaction technology. The ConocoPhillips Kenai LNG Project in Alaska in 1969 set the trend for the LNG industry as the first LNG plant to use gas turbines for refrigerant compressor drivers in place of the traditional steam turbines.
The Darwin LNG facility continues to build on this history of innovation by being the first LNG plant to use high efficiency, low emission, and aero-derivative gas turbines as refrigerant drivers.
Darwin LNG was also designed to incorporate numerous energy saving measures, including the installation of systems to recover waste heat and re-capture off-take flash gases.
1 This energy consumption total will not reconcile with that reported under the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (NGER) Act, 2007 as the NGER Act requires the reporting of some energy sources that are not assessable under the Energy Efficiency Opportunities Act.
Darwin LNG – our energy story
Opportunities identified for
energy efficiency
In 2008 ConocoPhillips carried out its first Energy Efficiency Opportunities (EEO) assessment of the Darwin Liquefied Natural Gas facility (DLNG) to identify opportunities to reduce greenhouse emissions and improve operating efficiency. ConocoPhillips generated many ideas for the EEO assessment through a workshop consultation process. Following the workshop, these EEOs were reviewed with engineering experts.
Three opportunities were identified as having realistic potential of a payback of less than four years. As reported in the 2007/2008, 2008/2009 and 2009/2010 EEO Public Reports, the three opportunities were:
• Implement an Advanced Process Control (APC) at DLNG; • Waste heat recovery on the methane refrigeration turbines; and • Waste heat recovery from the onsite power generation
turbine drivers.
After assessing all three opportunities, the APC was identified as the only opportunity that would deliver the desired EEO outcomes, within a payback period of less than four years.
ConocoPhillips generated many ideas
for the EEO assessment through a
workshop consultation process.
The opportunities at Darwin LNG
Advanced
Process
Control
(chosen
opportunity)
Implement
Waste Heat
Recovery on
the Methane
Refrigeration
Turbines
Recover
Waste Heat
from the
Onsite Power
Generation
Turbine
Drivers
The following information outlines the three energy efficiency opportunities identified for this public report:
ConocoPhillips commissioned a report to identify opportunities where an Advanced Process Control (APC) could reduce energy consumption at DLNG. This report concluded that the DLNG facility could realise significant benefits by:
• Operating the plant closer to process constraints; • Reducing process variation by automatically
making proactive process changes;
• Reduced operator intervention and increased optimization;
• Operating energy intensive equipment (turbines, compressors etc) at optimum levels; and
• Reducing flaring events by optimising start-up times and increasing process stability.
Implementation of the APC project commenced at DLNG in December 2009, and was completed in the first quarter of 2010.
The opportunity to implement waste heat recovery on the methane refrigeration turbines has a payback period in excess of 4 year and consequently is not viable under EEO guidelines.
An external contractor was engaged to provide a conceptual study of a system to recover waste heat from the onsite power generation turbine drivers. This study included a feasibility assessment covering the following:
• Installation of a steam system;
• Installation of one or more waste heat recovery units on the On Site Power Generation (OSPG) turbines; • Conceptual designs for consideration; and • Evaluation of the costs and benefits obtained from
the installation.
The study determined that the payback period for this opportunity is greater than 4 years and consequently is not viable under EEO guidelines.
Outcome:
Business Response
Implementation of APC has resulted in a more reliable plant and fewer process upsets.
Energy saved (GJ)
The actual net reduction in energy consumption associated with APC implementation was difficult to assess, due to the operational variables and complexities of the Darwin LNG facility.
Business Response Not to be implemented Potential energy savings (GJ) 477,681
Business Response Not to be implemented Potential energy savings (GJ) 278,647
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ConocoPhillips recently engaged climate-change consultants to facilitate a workshop for Darwin LNG Facility personnel to identify greenhouse gas emissions reduction opportunities and test assumptions of the plant’s basis of design.
The workshop was an important action identified in the business unit’s Climate Change Action Plan.
“This workshop created a great opportunity for our operations, engineering and environmental personnel to utilize their knowledge and experience in finding opportunities for emissions reductions that are directly relevant to our plant,” Darwin Area Manager Dominic Macklon said. “As part of our inherent business practice, ConocoPhillips will continue to investigate
opportunities for improved efficiency at the Darwin LNG plant.”
The ConocoPhillips Corporate Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions Reductions Guidelines were reviewed and integrated into the Darwin workshop content. Opportunities identified for further consideration and assessment were associated with fugitive emissions, direct-fired heaters, acid gas removal and thermal incineration, stationary gas turbines, centrifugal compressors, and flaring and liquid hydrocarbon storage.
A post-workshop report detailing the outcomes and opportunities identified, along with a high-level qualitative cost and emissions-saving ranking, was provided to the Operations team.
Improving efficiencies at Darwin LNG
Darwin Area Manager ConocoPhillips, Dominic Macklon
Energy Efficiency Opportunities 6
Our first LNG cargo was loaded at Darwin LNG in 2006. In March this year we celebrated a significant
milestone with the safe loading of the 250th cargo of LNG, to be shipped from Darwin to our long-term, valued
customers in Japan.
The Darwin LNG facility leads innovation in the Australian LNG industry, as the first LNG plant to use high
ConocoPhillips Australia 53 Ord Street West Perth Western Australia 6005 Phone : (08) 9423 6666 www.conocophillips.com.au
