In 2003, American Petroleum Institute members created their Climate Challenge Programs to step up efforts addressing climate change and help U.S. industry as a whole meet new voluntary goals set for it by the U.S. Department of Energy. API members established their own industry and individual company goals and are now meeting them through more aggressive action to reduce global warming emissions.
The goals range from encouraging every company to develop a greenhouse gas emissions management plan to setting numerical targets for improving energy efficiency and reducing emissions. For example, refining companies have pledged to improve energy efficiency 10 percent by 2012 and are making progress to meet this objective. In 2006, for example, improvements in energy efficiency at API member refineries -- compared to the technology used in 2002 -- produced energy savings equivalent to taking more than 528,000 cars off the road, or savings equivalent to the electricity used by more than 950,000 homes.
The actions companies are taking to achieve their goals include using combined heat and power technology to enhance energy efficiency, developing and marketing alternative energy, storing carbon dioxide emissions underground, and reducing natural gas flaring. They also developed and are employing new emissions estimation and tracking tools to help assess how well they are meeting their emission management targets. Once sufficient data are collected, they will report progress to the public.
Finally, in partnership with major universities and research institutions, they are investing hundreds of millions of dollars in climate change research both to improve understanding of the global warming problem and to advance the technologies that will help us and future generations combat it.
Reducing emissions
Producing oil and natural gas products and delivering them to consumers results in greenhouse gas emissions. However, by steadily improving their energy efficiency, companies have been reducing emissions and possible climate impacts. They're been employing cogeneration, also known as combined heat and power technology, to turn waste heat into energy and have been working around the world to reduce natural gas flaring, another source of greenhouse gas emissions.
BP is investing $100 million to add 250 megawatts of cogeneration to its Texas City refinery (to be completed in 2008) to more fully use its refinery fuel gas, increasing refinery efficiency and reducing emissions.
ExxonMobil has interests in 85 cogeneration facilities at some 30 locations worldwide that, through more efficient production of steam and electric power, enable a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions of nine million metric tons a year. ExxonMobil participates in EPA’s Combined Heat and Power Partnership, a volunteer program aimed at encouraging increased efficiency and lower greenhouse emissions through cogeneration.
Through a consistent focus on energy efficiency, Chevron has reduced its own energy consumption per unit of output by 24 percent since 1992. More efficiency means less greenhouse emissions.
In the United States, through voluntary efforts such as participation in the Environmental Protection Agency's Natural Gas STAR program, Chevron has reduced natural gas emissions by more than 20 billion cubic feet since 1991. At the same time, the reduction of flaring and venting in overseas operations offers a significant opportunity to cut GHG emissions and utilize the gas resources.
Natural gas flaring reduction projects at ExxonMobil’s Africa facilities are reducing greenhouse gas emissions by about seven million metric tons per year, the equivalent to removing approximately one million cars from U.S. roads.
ExxonMobil is working with Toyota and Caterpillar on separate programs to design high-efficiency, low-emission gasoline and diesel fuel/engine systems. High-efficiency engines mean reduced greenhouse gas emissions.
ExxonMobil’s global energy management system, which focuses on opportunities to reduce energy consumed at the company’s refineries and chemical complexes, saves enough energy to supply over one million European households each year. The greenhouse gas emission effect has been equivalent to taking more than one million cars off the road.
As the first oil company to join the U.S. EPA’s SmartWay Transport program, ExxonMobil is implementing a variety of measures to increase the fuel efficiency of its transportation fleet, reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Alternative fuels
U.S. oil and natural gas companies are developing and/or marketing virtually every alternative fuel, including solar power, wind, geothermal, biofuels and hydrogen power. While they must ensure Americans have the oil and natural gas they will need and demand in the coming years, they are also moving toward a future in which our energy landscape will look much different.
BP started operations on the Flat Ridge Wind Farm in Kansas. By the end of 2008 BP Alternative Energy North America Inc. expects to generate over 1,000 MW of zero-carbon electricity from its wind projects.
Shell is constructing a wind farm power generating facility in West Virginia that will make it one of the world's largest generators of wind power.
ExxonMobil has developed a super-thin plastic sheeting that can improve lithium-ion batteries for use in automobiles. With this technology, smaller, more affordable, safer and more reliable battery systems can be built that could greatly increase the attractiveness of hybrid electric and full electric vehicles.
Chevron Energy Technology Company has formed an alliance with the Penn State Institutes of Energy and the Environment to research coal conversion technologies. The joint research initiative will focus on coal chemistry and conversion technology, advanced fuels, combustion, analysis methods, reactor science, separations, process technology, and CO2/greenhouse gas management and conversion.
ConocoPhillips is partnering with the Archer-Daniels-Midland Company to develop the capacity to make "biocrude," an energy source similar to crude oil made from switchgrass, wood and crops.
Chevron Energy Solutions completed extensive upgrades to 16 Colorado state buildings that are expected to reduce energy costs at the facilities by 25-30 percent and save state taxpayers nearly $1 million annually and more than $20 million over the next two decades. By reducing energy use, the upgrades should also reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 8,000 metric tons, equivalent to removing 1,500 cars from the road.
Chevron has started production of a 110-megawatt Darajat III geothermal plant in Garut, West Java, Indonesia. The combined output from Chevron's Darajat and Salak geothermal operations now produces sufficient renewable energy to supply approximately 3.9 million homes in Indonesia.
Chevron Energy Solutions and Bank of America are partnering with the San Jose Unified School District to establish what is expected to be the largest solar power and energy-efficient facilities program in K-12 education in the United States. The program, which will involve the installation of five megawatts of solar power, could save the district more than $25 million in energy costs over its life.
BP Solar is doubling the size of its solar panel manufacturing facility in Maryland, the largest integrated solar panel manufacturing facility in North America, with an investment of nearly $100 million. The company is also expanding solar plants in India and Spain.
BP, Associated British Foods and DuPont are investing $400 million for the construction of a world scale bioethanol plant alongside a high technology demonstration plant to advance development work on the next generation of biofuels.
Chevron is working with the Texas A&M Agriculture and Engineering BioEnergy Alliance to accelerate the production and conversion of crops for manufacturing ethanol and other biofuels from cellulose.
Shell Hydrogen LLC and Virent Energy systems, Inc. have agreed to develop further and commercialize Virent's BioFormingTM technology platform for hydrogen production. The technology is expected to enable the economic production of hydrogen from renewable glycerol and sugar-based feedstocks.
BP and GE have formed an international alliance to advance and implement power plant technology that would reduce carbon dioxide emissions resulting from electricity generation.
BP has entered into a partnership with the University of California Berkeley and its strategic partners -- the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory -- to establish the Energy Biosciences Institute. The Institute will perform ground-breaking research aimed at probing the emerging secrets of bioscience and applying them to the production of new and cleaner energy, principally fuels for road transport. BP will invest $500 million in the Institute over the next 10 years.
Shell Oil Products US and Codexis Inc, a biotechnology company, are launching a collaborative project to explore enhanced methods of converting biomass to biofuels.
Clipper Windpower and BP Alternative Energy and cooperating in the development of five of Clipper's wind energy projects in the U.S. The projects are located in New York, Texas and South Dakota.
BP and GE are partnering to develop and deploy hydrogen power projects that will use fossil fuels to generate hydrogen power combined with carbon dioxide capture and storage. The first two projects will be in Scotland and California.
BP and Edison Mission Group, a subsidiary of Edison International, are planning a new $1 billion hydrogen-fueled power plant in California that would generate clean electricity with minimal carbon dioxide emissions. BP is investing up to $8 billion over the next decade in alternative fuel projects, including hydrogen, solar, wind, and gas-fired generation.
In renewable energy, Chevron has installed production capacity of 1,152 megawatts, primarily geothermal, making it the largest renewable energy producer of any global oil and gas company and the largest producer of geothermal energy. Geothermal is a renewable source of energy that uses the heat energy of the earth to generate power with almost no greenhouse gas emissions. Chevron is involved in four major geothermal energy projects that produce clean electricity for Indonesia and the Philippines. If compared to a typical power grid (coal, oil, gas, etc.), this level of renewable energy production represents avoided greenhouse gas emissions of over 6 million tons annually.
Shell is the world’s biggest blender of transport biofuels, with a stake in Iogen Energy that is testing new technology to make bioethanol cheaper using waste wood and straw, with carbon emissions 90 percent lower than for conventional fuels. The greenhouse gas emission reductions from cellulose ethanol are three times greater than those from grain-based ethanol on a life-cycle basis.
BP and the California Institute of Technology are conducting a multi-million dollar research program that could open the door to a radical new way of producing solar cells, making the cost of solar electricity more competitive and increasing current efficiency levels.
BP and DuPont are leveraging DuPont’s world-class biotechnology and bio-manufacturing capabilities with BP’s fuels technology expertise and market know-how to produce advanced bio-fuels. The first product to market will be biobutanol, which will be introduced in the United Kingdom as a gasoline bio-component.
In cooperation with the state of California, General Motors and Pacific Ethanol, Chevron is helping to evaluate a reformulated blend of E85 (85 percent ethanol/15 percent gasoline). Chevron will produce the renewable fuel at various demonstration stations for a fleet of 50 to 100 state vehicles.
Chevron has committed more than $400 million a year to renewable and clean energy projects, including projects in wind and solar energy. The company is now operating wind farms or photovoltaic installations in the Netherlands, California, Guatemala City, London and Rio de Janeiro.
Chevron operates the largest, most complex hydrogen infrastructure in the United States. Chevron is leading DOE Hydrogen Demonstration projects, and in 2006 opened the Oakland, California AC Transit Bus Station, which uses hydrogen for city buses taking hundreds of passengers around Oakland. The company is working to open additional stations in Florida and Michigan.
Chevron has a joint venture with Energy Conversion Devices called Cobasys (http://www.cobasys.com) that develops advanced energy storage technologies by commercializing nickel metal hydride (NiMH) batteries for the emerging hybrid electric and fuel cell vehicles markets as well as non-automotive applications such as uninterruptible power supply for stationary and telecommunication applications. NiMH batteries are already used in today's hybrid-electric cars.
Chevron has formed a biofuels business unit to advance technology and pursue commercial opportunities related to the production and distribution of ethanol and biodiesel in the U.S. The company has invested in Galveston Bay Biodiesel LP (GBB), a Texas-based company that is building one of the first large-scale biodiesel plants in the United States, which will double the size of the amount of biodiesel being produced in the United States. The biodiesel will be made from soybeans and other renewable feedstocks. Chevron blends about 300 million gallons of ethanol per year for use in gasoline blends and is participating in an E85 demonstration project with the state of California, General Motors and Pacific Ethanol.
ExxonMobil is developing a novel technique for hydrogen production, potentially compatible with both on-board vehicle and larger-scale applications.
Researching solutions
The key to successfully addressing climate change is better technology, and the advance of technology depends in large part on research. The industry is investing heavily in a broad range of energy research projects, working with other industries and with universities and research institutions.
ConocoPhillips is funding a $22.5 million research program on biofuels at Iowa State University.
Chevron is involved in a strategic research alliance with the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory to advance development of renewable transportation fuels. Chevron also has joint research initiatives with the University of California at Davis and the Georgia Institute of Technology, focusing on cellulosic biofuels enabled by advanced manufacturing technologies for distributed energy production.
BP researchers have developed a new silicon growth process that increases the efficiency of solar cells, enabling them to produce additional power. This technology, which has the potential of reducing the solar technology costs, will be available in 2007.
BP plans to spend $500 million over the next ten years to establish a dedicated biosciences energy research laboratory attached to a major academic center in the United States or the United Kingdom that will probe the emerging secrets of bioscience and apply them to the production of new and cleaner energy, principally vehicle fuels.
ExxonMobil worked to establish and is providing $100 million to the Stanford University Global Climate and Energy Project, the largest-ever independent climate and energy research effort. At the end of 2005, 27 projects were underway related to hydrogen power, advanced combustion, solar energy, CO2 storage, CO2 capture and separation, biomass, and advanced materials and catalysts.
Chevron and the Georgia Institute of Technology have formed a strategic research alliance to pursue advanced technology aimed at making cellulosic biofuels and hydrogen viable transportation fuels.
Capturing and sequestering emissions
Deep under the Earth, formations of porous rock hold the oil and natural gas we depend on for much of our energy. U.S. oil and natural gas companies are now using these same underground formations and other geologically appropriate locations to lock up or sequester large amounts of the carbon dioxide from fossils fuels that otherwise might enter the atmosphere to contribute to climate change.
ExxonMobil is contributing over one million Euros and technical guidance in a project sponsored by the European Commission Directorate General for Research that will evaluate a range of technologies to monitor the injection and storage of carbon dioxide from gas streams at the Sleipner and Snohvit fields in the Norwegian North Sea, at In Salah in the southern Saharan desert in Algeria and in the German locality of Ketzin. ExxonMobil shares in the ownership of the North Sea Sleipner gas field where over one million tonnes of carbon dioxide have been sequestered each year since 1998.
Anadarko Petroleum Corporation sequesters millions of tons of carbon dioxide that would otherwise be vented into the atmosphere. Enhanced oil recovery projects in Wyoming use CO2 to stimulate oil production. Anadarko expects to sequester more than 30 million tons of CO2 over the lifetime of the Salt Creek and Monell projects alone. This major geological sequestration is one of the largest projects of its kind in the world.
ConocoPhillips announced a worldwide alliance (with Fluor Corp) for the "licensing, development, engineering, procurement, construction, and operations and maintenance" of ConocoPhillips' E-Gas Technology systems. E-Gas Technology is an advanced Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle system producing electric power as well as synthesis gas, hydrogen and steam. The technology allows virtually all pollutant-forming impurities to be removed, including mercury from coal, and is readily adaptable for further removal of carbon in the future.
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