As the pressure to act on climate change continues to build, stakeholder expectations of the international oil and gas industry to decarbonize continues to increase. International Oil Companies (IOCs) and other major companies are variably committed to aspirational decarbonization targets to meet these ever-increasing stakeholder and societal expectations. In response, IOCs are setting interim decarbonization targets and making public commitments to the net zero ambition on the global stage. This paper will address the evolution of decarbonization for the oil & gas industry and explore the current trends shaping decarbonization efforts globally. The paper will also provide a case study on one of the largest oil and gas companies in the world and its approach to strategically address the climate challenge, which includes multiple carbon intensity mid-term targets, an absolute emissions reduction of more than 50 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent and an ambition to achieve net-zero by 2050 for Scope 1 and 2 emissions from its wholly owned assets and operationally-controlled affiliates. This strategic approach to decarbonization is built upon five (5) primary levers: Energy Efficiency, Carbon Capture & Storage, Flaring Reduction, Renewables, and Offsetting. The paper will discuss aspects of strategy setting, detail technical analysis for oil and gas assets and the associated beneficial balance of having both a top-down strategy and bottom detailed asset specific technical roadmaps focused on execution. The case study will shed light on the oil and gas major’s approach for developing marginal abatement cost curves to identify the projects and initiatives to deliver the required abatement in the most beneficial but cost-effective manner. Finally, the paper will provide insight on the path forward to a decarbonized oil and gas industry as well as a insights on a few of the latest programs and technologies for monitoring and measurement of greenhouse gases which support the industry’s decarbonization efforts.
