Abu Dhabi's state-owned Adnoc has brought forward its target to reach net zero carbon emissions by five years to 2045, although it did not specify if this encompasses just emissions from its own activities or those from the use of the products it makes.
The company for the first time disclosed the emissions from its operations, known as scope 1 and scope 2, which totalled 24mn t of CO2 equivalent (CO2e) in 2022. Adnoc made no mention of emissions arising from the use of its products, or scope 3, which make up the majority of oil and gas company emissions. It told Argus it is collaborating with its clients "to help them transition to clean energy".
The emissions disclosure and new target comes a few months ahead of Dubai hosting the UN's Cop 28 climate summit, which will be hosted by Adnoc chief executive Sultan al-Jaber. The UAE is Opec's third largest producer, and Adnoc pumps most of the country's oil. The company does not hide its intention to continue expanding on the fossil fuel side, having raised its crude production capacity to 4.5mn b/d recently and targeting a further expansion to 5mn b/d by 2027.
But Adnoc said today that it aims to eliminate methane emissions by end of the decade, and that it aims to cut carbon intensity by 25pc by 2030. Emissions intensity is a measure of emissions against a unit — for instance emissions per barrel of oil. This means if a company is planning to ramp up output, its absolute emissions could rise, but its emissions intensity still falls.
The company had also committed to upstream methane intensity of 0.15pc by 2025, but it said today that it was already around 0.07pc in 2022. It said its upstream carbon intensity averaged around 7kgs of CO2e per barrel of oil equivalent (boe).
The company previously targeted a 25pc reduction in its cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emission intensity and a 500pc increase in its carbon capture, utilisation and storage capacity by 2030.
Adnoc's decarbonisation plan includes building a 1mn t/yr low-carbon ammonia production facility.
"Low carbon ammonia is one of the ways helping do decarbonise industry," it said.
