Chapter 9 - Case studies in decarbonization of the petroleum industry

Greenhouse gas emissions such as CO2 and CH4 are a growing concern as they pose a threat to the environment and make this world vulnerable to the effects of global warming. Decarbonization has become necessary, provided the Paris Agreement is to be followed through. The petroleum industry largely contributes to greenhouse gas emissions and should be a target of implementing abatement and mitigation strategies, especially when it is impossible to completely shift toward renewable energy resources despite being an excellent alternative. The petroleum industry comprises upstream, midstream, and downstream operations, and several technologies have been designed and developed for each of these sectors to reduce emissions; however, substantial implementation of these decarbonization projects is lacking, with only a few organizations on the forefront. This chapter highlights some decarbonization efforts in the petroleum industry with carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects playing an essential role in large scale CO2 abatement. Petroleum companies such as Shell, Apache, TotalEnergies, Perenco, and Equinor surely pave the way for others to follow and contribute to the environment. These companies have had significant achievements of reducing large amount of emissions by adopting different decarbonization strategies such as energy efficiency, electrification, installing CCS facilities, etc. in pursuit of their long-term goals of net-zero emissions. These pioneers and developed countries as a whole are also responsible for encouraging the widespread deployment of decarbonization technologies through technology transfer, knowledge sharing, and collaboration.