DEPARTMENTS • ENVIRONMENT, SOCIAL AND GOVERNANCE
New framework aims
to help assess reliability
of crude oil’s GHG intensity
KCA Deutag’s rig will use electrical motors instead of diesel generators while
drilling the Z17 well for Neptune Energy in Germany.

Electrical motors to cut drilling emissions in Germany
Neptune Energy recently awarded
KCA Deutag with a contract to drill the
Z17 well in the Adorf Carboniferous gas
field, northwest Germany . Operated with
power from the grid, KCA Deutag’s rig
will use electrical motors in place of
diesel-driven generators, removing an
estimated 1,000 tonnes of CO 2 emissions
from the drilling operation.

Neptune has been developing the
Adorf field since 2019. The Adorf Z15 and
Adorf Z16 wells were also drilled by KCA
Deutag and are now in production.

“The use of electrical motors under-
lines Neptune’s commitment to continue
to reduce emissions from our opera-
tions,” said Andreas Scheck, Neptune
Energy’s Managing Director in Germany.

The operator says that by 2030, it aims to
store more carbon than is emitted from
its operations and from the use of its sold
products. Work on the Z17 well is due to com-
mence in June .

Neptune Energy holds a 100% stake in
the Adorf Carboniferous gas field. The
current daily production is around 4,500
bbl/day of oil equivalent.

Shell commits funds to create Energy Transition Institute
A $10 million gift from Shell has
enabled the University of Houston
(UH) to establish the Energy Transition
Institute, focused on the production and
use of reliable, affordable and cleaner
energy . Total funding for the institute
will likely exceed $52 million.

With Shell as the founding partner, the
Energy Transition Institute is focused
on three core areas: hydrogen, carbon
management and circular plastics . The
hydrogen focus will be on the industrial
use, storage and transportation of liquid
hydrogen, driven by a commercializa-
10 tion effort to accelerate its decarboniza-
tion at scale. In addition to this work,
UH is already working with a Shell-led
consortium to enable large-scale liquid
hydrogen storage for international trade
applications. Carbon management will
focus on policy, research and develop-
ment to reduce emissions through the
capture, utilization and storage of CO 2
and methane.

After the institute is launched, it is
expected that Shell scientists will work
with faculty and students on each of the
core areas .

S&P Global has issued a study provid-
ing guidance and methodology to help
the industry improve comparability, con-
sistency and confidence in assessing the
life-cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) intensity
of crude oil. The study addresses chal-
lenges that currently limit utility of life-
cycle GHG emissions estimates of crude
oil. It also proposes a “Data Quality Metric,”
a framework to improve the transparency
around the reliability of estimates. It was
developed in collaboration with the US
Department of Energy’s National Energy
Technology Laboratory.

The study also aims to demonstrate the
guidance and methodology by creating
a benchmark representing the average
intensity of crude oil consumed in North
America. The results assess the crude oil
pathways that comprise over 90% of the
volume processed in the US in 2019 .

Scan me to download
the full report.

bit.ly/3ro1OXk New BSEE Burner could be
game changer for oil spills
On 30 March, the US Bureau of Safety
and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE)
and the US Naval Research Laboratory
(NRL) hosted a demonstration of the Low-
Emission Spray Crude Oil Combustor tech-
nology, also known as the “BSEE Burner.”
The demonstration was held at NRL’s test-
ing facility in Chesapeake Beach, M d .

Developed in partnership with NRL
over seven years, the BSEE Burner cleanly
burns large volumes of emulsified oil from
spills that occur in remote areas where
storage facilities may not be available,
or where transporting the recovered oil
is cost prohibitive. EPA emission tests
revealed that the burner performs well
with a combustion efficiency of 99.9% .

“This technology has the potential to be
a game changer in the performance of oil
spill recovery,” said BSEE Director Kevin
Sligh. M AY/J U N E 202 2 • D R I L L I N G C O N T R AC T O R