The exploration for and production and transportation of oil and gas accounts for ~ 9% of the world’s GHG emissions. It means the oil and gas industry has a big part to play if the climate change goals set out in the Paris Agreement are to be achieved.

As an exploration and production company with no downstream assets we have no control over how the oil and gas we produce is consumed or transformed into other products.

Our assets are in countries with ambitious CO2 reduction targets in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. We are fully committed to the relevant National GHG emissions reduction targets and the goals set out in the Paris Agreement.

In pursuit of our 2050 target of net-zero operational GHG emissions, we will focus on energy efficiency and ways to reduce our emissions intensity

While we reduce emissions from our existing asset base, we will intensify our work exploring how our assets could be repurposed to generate Net Zero carbon energy or even negative emissions through projects like carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS).

We don’t have all the answers today and we have a lot more to do to reduce the GHG emissions from our activities.

Everyone can do something about climate change and every day we are learning more about what we can do. Our immediate focus is on:

• Finalising our Energy Transition strategy and establishing realistic and ambitious medium term greenhouse gas emission reduction targets and key metrics. We will establish both absolute emission reductions and carbon intensity targets.
• Validating our baseline emissions during 2021.
• Reporting our operated emissions by country in accordance with the relevant national greenhouse gas trading regulations in the UK and Netherlands.
• Making GHG emissions criteria a formal part of our investment decision-making and how we run our business.
• Stopping all routine flaring by 2030 in alignment to the World Bank’s initiative.
• Minimising our primary production emissions through improved operational efficiency, reduced flaring and fugitive leak detection and repair programmes.
• Implementing the best available technology into all new projects to minimise greenhouse gas emissions.
• Advocating low-carbon electricity to supply our operations.
• Assessing the viability of carbon capture and storage at selected assets.

We have recently appointed an Energy Transition director to oversee our work towards net-zero. We have also established formal roles to oversee our efforts in reducing our emissions, and work is ramping up across the organisation to support our ambition.

The UK offshore oil and gas industry was one of the first major industrial sectors to respond with a definitive action plan to the report from the Committee on Climate Change and the legally binding government targets of Net Zero by 2050 at the latest.

As a member of Oil & Gas UK we support Roadmap 2035 – a blueprint for Net Zero, and as a member of the Netherlands Oil and Gas Exploration and Production Association we support the work of Nextstep, the National Platform for Reuse and Decommissioning strategy to promote technology development and the reuse of oil and gas infrastructure .

We have identified several potential projects across our portfolio in the UK and The Netherlands which are at differing stages of review. Opportunities that have been developed the furthest relate to the Morecambe Hub – previously one of the largest primary energy suppliers to the UK, and we are studying how it can play a role in our move towards being a lower carbon business but also how it can play a nationally significant role in the UK fulfilling its net zero plans.

• We are developing means to reduce fuel gas consumption at Morecambe Hub
• We are studying the potential of building a solar farm at the Barrow Terminals site and surrounding land – with the potential of generating renewable energy for our own use and for export to the grid.
• The potential for future reuse of infrastructure is less mature, but we are evaluating potential future uses for Morecambe, such as CCUS projects and blue hydrogen.

Every year, we report on our performance as part of the OSPAR Recommendation 2003/5.

Our reports are available here