The US Environmental Protection Agency has released the initial program design of the greenhouse gas reduction fund, a $27 billion component of the Inflation Reduction Act.
Aspen Technology’s Operational Insights is said to advance carbon emission reduction, targeting areas with the biggest potential impact. Operational Insights was originally developed for electrical utilities by the company’s OSI business and is now being adapted for the energy and chemical industries. The new functionality is a component of the V14 edition of AspenONE.
Coloradan operator Civitas Resources is to deploy Iconic Air’s Emissions Intelligence platform to support its emission reductions and ESG performance reporting. Emissions Intelligence enables operators to calculate, visualize and report emissions data ‘more robustly’. The software provides environmental and sustainability practitioners with auditing, reporting, forecasting and scenario planning functionality.
The UK Digital Twin Hub has announced the Climate Resilience Demonstrator (CReDo), a ‘connected digital twin of critical infrastructure’. CReDo targets the water, energy and telecoms sectors and is intended to help cross-sectoral networks improve climate resilience.
A more modest contribution to GHG reduction was evidenced in the EU Horizon magazine where we read that a new software is to help predict numerous features of a low-carbon society. The ‘keenly anticipated’ Model Explorer, scheduled for release mid-year, is said to be ‘the next advance in computer modelling for Europe’s clean-energy ambitions, promising key insights into the impact on societies of the planned switch from fossil fuels to renewable power sources’. The tool was developed under the EU-funded Locomotion project.
Aker BP is to deploy Envana Catalyst to help it forecast emissions from drilling and production operations, and to track progress on reduction. Envana Software Solutions is a newly formed, $50 million joint venture between Halliburton and private equity company Siguler Guff.
Flogistix’s methane sniffing technology has been approved by the State of New Mexico as part of its advanced leak and repair monitoring (Alarm) program. The Flogistix system detects methane, H2S, VOC, and hydrocarbons. Hardware comprises a DJI Matrice 300 drone carrying Sorability’s 4Dv2 Sniffer.
Yemen-based producer PetroMasila has installed GE’s TM2500 device to capture flare gas and use it to generate electricity. Four of the aeroderivative gas turbines were previously deployed in Permian Basin to convert gas flared at frac sites into electricity. More from GE.
Gas Liquids Engineering has initiated front end engineering and design on Whitecap Resources’ CO2 pipeline, compression, and sequestration system for Saskatchewan. Whitecap currently operates one of the largest anthropogenic carbon sequestration projects in the world, transporting CO2 from two major industrial emitters to its CCUS hub in Weyburn, Saskatchewan. The new study involves expanding the facility to multiple additional industrial CO2 sources and new sequestration wells.
A new carbon capture and storage company Azuli Intl. has just launched in the UK. The company was formed by CEO Hamish Wilson and the management team that set up Lapis Energy in the US. Late last year, Azuli signed a memorandum of understanding with Korean SK Earthon for future cooperation on global CCS deployment.
A study by Inmarsat has found that ‘three quarters of business leaders do not believe their peers’ ESG reporting, [ … ] and that a lack of industry trust and verifiable data is driving skepticism’. The study, Accelerating sustainable action through IoT found that in oil and gas, 72% did not trust their peers’ ESG reporting72%, that 74% believe their peers are ‘focused on perception rather than tangible sustainability outcomes’ but that (amusingly) 82% still believe they are ‘more sustainable than their peers’.
In a similar vein, a study reported in the Financial Times found that ‘just 12 companies out of more than 18,700 worldwide merited a ‘Triple A’ score for their environmental disclosures in 2022’. The study was produced by CDP, formerly known as the Carbon Disclosure Project. More than 29,500 companies with a combined market value of more than $24.5 trillion were graded an ‘F’ after failing to provide any data to CDP. Saudi Aramco, ExxonMobil and Chevron did not respond to the CDP.
The Government of Canada has resolved to end new public support for the international ‘unabated fossil fuel energy sector’ with the signing of the COP Statement on the clean energy transition. Canada was one of the (only) three major energy producers to do so. Canada has issued new policy guidelines to implement measures set out in the Statement.
Supply chain and management consultants TSOR Group has teamed with ‘verified’ carbon dioxide removal company Eion Corp on large-scale carbon dioxide removal (CDR). Eion’s CarbonLock ‘enhanced rock weathering’ technology is claimed to accelerate natural geological processes to remove atmospheric carbon permanently at scale.
Chevron, through its Chevron New Energies business, and Baseload Capital have announced a joint venture to develop geothermal projects in the United States. The companies will collaborate on driving geothermal opportunities – including identifying the best prospects for development, operations and progressing the next generation of geothermal technologies from pilot to commercial scale. More in the release.
The EU Innovation Council has awarded some €17.5 million Euros to Milan, Italy-based Energy Dome for the deployment of its ‘CO2 Battery’. The Battery stores surplus electricity by compressing and liquifying CO2 in a closed system. When energy is needed, the CO2 warms up, evaporates and expands, turning a turbine and generating electricity – ‘with zero emissions to the atmosphere’.
Pason Systems has released its inaugural (2021) sustainability report. Note that in this context, ‘sustainability’ covers a range of topics including drilling efficiency, diversity and inclusion, corporate governance, safety culture and cyber security.
Germany’s Graforce was a winner in the recent Race2Decarbonise competition organized by Petronas.
The award was for Graforce’s technology that converts flare gas and
other hydrocarbons into ‘clean hydrogen and solid carbon’. Graforce’s
‘plasmalysis’ methane electrolysis is claimed to be ‘an alternative to
carbon capture and storage’. More from Graforce.
The IEAGHG has announced CO2DataShare, a data sharing platform which allows access to data from four CO2 storage projects in two countries. The intent is that these datasets can be used in the research and development of CO2 storage projects and upskilling of future CCS specialists. Current data sets are Sleipner, Longship and Smeaheia (all in Norway) and Decatur (Illinois). The platform was developed at Norway’s Sintef R&D organization. More (US) CCS data is available at the DoE’s EDX data sharing website.
Kontrol Technologies has entered the liquified natural gas (LNG) market to provide continuous emission monitoring and analytics solutions with a primary focus on the USA. Kontrol’s offering includes continuous remote monitoring, real time sampling and enhanced testing supported by robust data and analytics. One objective is certifying LNG operators in line with the GIIGNL* framework for carbon neutrality.
* International Group of Liquefied Natural Gas Importers.
CF Industries has purchased of 2.2 billion cubic feet of natural gas certified by MiQ to have ‘90% lower methane emissions intensity than the industry average’. Certification is considered a pathway to meet CFI’s scope 3 emissions reduction goals in ammonia manufacturing. Certified natural gas is produced by companies whose operations are independently verified by a third-party auditor using the not-for-profit MiQ methane standard.
Pennsylvanian operator Olympus Energy and its wholly-owned Hyperion Midstream unit is the first integrated natural gas producer to certify its operated upstream and midstream gathering assets with Project Canary. Project Canary’s independent assessments analyze some 600 data points per well and deploy on-the-ground continuous emissions monitors. More from Project Carary.
Project Canary has also teamed with Xpansiv
on a marketplace for verified climate-related attributes for fuel
markets. The evaluation is based on high-fidelity GHG emissions
measurement, reporting, and verification provided by Project Canary.
The Xpansiv platform then enables producers to trade climate attributes
as ‘registered standardized digital assets’. This (apparently) allows
buyers to ‘meet net-zero goals with verifiable environmental claims’.
More from Xpansiv.
Occidental unit 1PointFive is to deploy Siemens Energy compressors at its large-scale direct air capture plant in the Permian Basin. The facility will capture up to 500,000 metric tons of CO2 per year when fully operational.
Petroleum Technology Alliance Canada’s CanERIC is program is currently funding 32 methane reduction projects with up to 50% of eligible expenses. More from CanERIC. PTAC has also teamed with Canada’s Clean Resource Innovation Network on a Digital Spotlight event to discuss the role of AI and ML in emissions reduction.
Schlumberger (now SLB) unit GeothermEx
has begun a final review of ‘Deep’, a Canadian geothermal power plant.
To date GeothermEx’s due diligence has resulted in ‘some 8.5 GW of
geothermal power and related investments exceeding USD $14 billion
dollars’. This is presumably the GWH per-year potential of the plant,
as construction is to commence in Q4, 2023 with first power production
estimated by summer 2024. Operator is Deep Earth Energy.
The Open Group has published
a short report from a recent online event discussing the use of its
enterprise architecture (EA) in sustainability. IBM’s Paul Homan opined
that ‘sustainability and green IT depend on interoperability, both
within and between enterprises – which requires an effective,
well-designed business architecture’. Sumouli Bhattacharjee (PwC)
provided an update on the Open Footprint Forum’s development of a data
model that is both ‘holistic and flexible enough to adapt to future
data needs’ . Read more of Loren Baynes’ report from the event here.
Ipieca has just published an update* to the 4th edition (2020) of its 200 plus page guide to sustainability reporting for the oil and gas industry, subtitled ‘advancing environmental and social performance across the energy transition. The 200 plus page report was co-authored with the API and IOGP .
* It is not clear what has been updated since 2020.
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