Adnoc targets 25% emissions intensity reduction by 2030

The company plans to increase its carbon capture programme six-fold as part of its 2030 sustainability goals

Dr Sultan Al Jaber, UAE Minister of State and chief executive of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company. Victor Besa / The National.

Abu Dhabi National Oil Company plans to lower its greenhouse gas emissions intensity by 25 per cent by 2030 as it adopts new sustainability goals to become a low-carbon intensive energy company.

The state-owned firm is currently one of the top five lowest greenhouse gas emitters in the oil and gas industry and has one of the lowest methane intensities in the world of 0.01 per cent.

“We are taking a comprehensive and holistic approach to our sustainability strategy in terms of our contribution to the economy, the environment and our most important asset, our people," said Dr Sultan Al Jaber, Adnoc group chief executive and Minister of State.

"We are strengthening our environmental performance as we expand our operations to ensure we can deliver more energy with fewer emissions for decades to come," he added.

The UAE accounts for around 4 per cent of global oil production, much of it from fields owned and operated by Adnoc which has a a daily output of about 3 million barrels of oil and 10.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas. As part of its adoption of sustainability goals, Adnoc also plans to limit its freshwater consumption ratio to below 0.5 per cent of total water use.

Over 99 per cent of water consumed by Adnoc is extracted seawater that is discharged back to the sea after treatment. The company also plans to plant 10 million mangrove seedlings in the Al Dhafra region of Abu Dhabi by the end of 2022. Mangroves are a natural defence against flooding and and provide a rich habitat for marine life, besides their role in reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

The company also plans to scale up its carbon capture, utilisation and storage programme, from 800,000 tonnes of captured CO2 annually to 5 million tonnes by 2030.

Harvesting carbon dioxide to be used as agent in the fields has become popular among upstream operators looking for more sustainable ways to coax more production out of maturing fields.

Adnoc has been pumping carbon captured by the Al Reyadah Company, which sources the gas from industrial facilities in Mussafah to help with enhanced oil recovery.

Adnoc also plans to achieve in-country value of 50 per cent across its full value chain by 2030

Total spend on the ICV programme, which incentivises local manufacturing for the oil and gas sector, reached Dh44bn to date, the firm said.

The ICV programme has also led to the creation of 1,500 private sector jobs for UAE nationals since it was launched in January 2018.

Adnoc said it "prioritises investments in state-of-the-art technology to monitor and reduce environmental impacts of its operations".