Virtual Training: Minimising Greenhouse Gas Emissions from the Petroleum Sector

The New Producers Group delivered a training to its member countries between 26 May – 8 July 2022 with support from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, the Commonwealth Secretariat and the African Natural Resources Centre of the African Development Bank.

• Minimising GHG Emissions from the Petroleum Sector – Consolidated Summary
• Minimising GHG Emissions from the Petroleum Sector – Training Course Evaluation

The training explored the technologies, processes, and oversight available to new producers for minimisation of a project’s GHG footprint.

Training participants were assembled in cross-governmental delegations from Ghana, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia, Senegal, Suriname, and Uganda, and 1-2 participants each from Brazil, Guyana and Kenya.

100%

of respondents in the post-course survey indicated that the training had enhanced their understanding of how to minimise emissions in the petroleum sector

79%

of respondents in the post-course survey said they would definitely make changes to how they deal with emissions as a result of the training

They were given pre-course reading and each delegation was asked to provide information on the type of petroleum discoveries the country had, any existing (or planned) regulations or guidelines related to GHG emission estimation and reporting, relevant climate and emission pledges, and institutional roles associated with emissions and the petroleum sector.  These provided information useful for guiding the course material and grouping countries for the breakout sessions.

The training sessions were preceded by a series of webinars recommended for attendees (and open to other NPG countries). These sessions covered key topics that underpinned the training:

• Understanding the sources of emissions in the petroleum sector
• International initiatives to control emissions
• National carbon offsets
• Carbon capture, storage and utilisation (CCUS)- what can new producers do in this space?
• Why design low emissions and even net zero?

The training sessions were a mixture of plenary sessions with presentations on various topics, with Q&A and also breakout sessions where countries could discuss their concerns and challenges in more detail.

Key Learnings

• 70% of scope 1 emissions can be cost effectively abated at a carbon price of US$40/tCO2 (IEA)
• Companies should focus on mitigation and rely on offsets and CCUS for residual emissions
• Signing up to zero routine flaring and the global methane pledge add credibility as does having an ambitious NDC
• Governments need to understand emissions profiles, not rely on emissions factors or data provided by operators
• Independent audit of GHG intensity at project level is the best way to make companies invest in emissions reduction (no chance of hiding a poor performing project in portfolio average)
• Real time public reporting of data is valuable for estimating emissions and establishing credibility
• Governments need to price carbon into their investment decisions (as per their target export market) and encourage emissions reductions
• Understand which emissions are controllable and focus on minimising those
• Roles and responsibilities are not always clear in estimating and monitoring emissions from the petroleum sector
• Many countries do not have explicit emissions reporting requirements
• Allowed exceptions for flaring are often not defined and there may be conflicts of interest in the granting of exceptions.
• Clear, complete rules and greater implementation may lead to a virtuous circle of oversight
• Plans for gas take longer than plans for oil
• Both export and domestic options are risky