A model for "immediate term" sustainability

We could segment the oil and gas sustainability challenge into three time scales - long term (field development), medium term (investment in existing operations) and immediate term (how we are operating today). And of these, the immediate term may be the most interesting.

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There are - we could say - four main categories of emissions in the immediate term (our operations). Flaring, venting & fugitive methane emissions, fuel combustion and supplier emissions. The gathering and reporting of data itself is a further challenge.

Of these, emissions are particularly important . There is increasing attention being brought to the need to understand the hydrocarbon industry’s emissions. The IEA estimate that this industry is underreporting emissions by as much as 70%.?

Do you have a strategy for all of these, or could you do more to address any of them?

FLARING: what are the operational conditions which lead to flaring - can you do more to identify when non routine flaring is about to occur and reduce it? Can we reduce the amount of ‘routine’ flaring? Can you make sure your flaring is as efficient as possible? (Strategies to take the gas to market or inject would come separately under 'medium term' sustainability).

VENTING AND FUGITIVE METHANE EMISSIONS: Do you have adequate methods to capture data about where these emissions might be, bearing in mind the enormous range of possible sources and detection technologies (direct sensors including wearables, drone surveys, infrared cameras, satellite imagery).

FUEL COMBUSTION; Are you marrying the data from fuel consumption from power generation or direct use in engines for pumps and drilling? Are you generating too much power? Could the equipment be run more efficiently? Are you monitoring how efficiently it is running, or getting early warnings about problems?

SUPPLIERS: Are you gathering data about carbon emissions embedded in your operational purchases (known as Scope 3, Category 1)? How thorough is this data?

REPORTING: How do you gather all of this data into an easily absorbed picture, so you and others (regulators, investors, stakeholders) can understand the emissions associated with your current operation, any trends, how you compare with other operators, how thorough your data gathering is, and so on?

Digital technology can support all of this, but only for products designed to do just this. The more complex functionality laden technology ‘products’ are unlikely to help you. But maybe it is possible to develop basic tools on an open source basis which the industry can adapt to their specific needs.