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
ENVIRONMENT, SOCIAL AND GOVERNANCE • DEPARTMENTS
SEC proposes requirements for climate-related risks, emissions disclosures
The US Securities and Exchange
Commission has proposed rule changes
that would require registrants to include
certain climate-related disclosures in
their registration statements and period-
ic reports, including information about
climate-related risks that are reasonably
likely to have a material impact on their
business, results of operations, or finan-
cial condition, and certain climate-related
financial statement metrics in a note to
their audited financial statements. The
required information about climate-relat-
ed risks also would include disclosure of
a registrant’s greenhouse gas emissions .
“ Today’s proposal would help issuers
more efficiently and effectively disclose
these risks and meet investor demand,
as many issuers already seek to do.
Companies and investors alike would
benefit from the clear rules of the road
proposed in this release ,” SEC Chair Gary
Gensler said.
Under the proposed rule changes, accel-
erated filers and large accelerated filers
would be required to include an attestation
report from an independent attestation
service provider covering Scopes 1 and 2
emissions disclosures, with a phase-in
over time, to promote the reliability of GHG
emissions disclosures for investors.
The proposed rules would include a
phase-in period for all registrants, with
the compliance date dependent on the
registrant’s filer status, and an additional
phase-in period for Scope 3 emissions
disclosure. See Page 6 for additional information on
the proposed changes.
BP, Chevron join new
Singapore-based group for
maritime decarbonization
Demand for CO 2 storage is increasing, and Equinor believes it’s important to
develop new storage sites quickly to allow the Norwegian Continental Shelf to
become a leading province for CO 2 storage in Europe.
Equinor awarded licenses for CO 2 storage on NCS
Equinor has been awarded the oper-
atorships for the development of two
CO 2 storage projects – Smeaheia in the
North Sea and Polaris in the Barents
Sea. The two licenses are seen as build-
ing blocks for developing the Norwegian
Continental Shelf (NCS) into a leading
province for CO 2 storage in Europe.
CO 2 transport and storage infrastruc-
ture is crucial for providing CO 2 solutions
on a commercial basis to industrial cus-
tomers, such as steel, cement and other
heavy industries. This will also help pro-
tect existing jobs while creating new jobs
in the development of new value chains
on the Norwegian shelf.
Talos Energy executes lease for CCS site offshore Texas
Talos Energy announced that Bayou
Bend , its venture with Carbonvert, has
executed definitive lease documentation
with the Texas General Land Office to
formalize a carbon capture and seques-
tration (CCS) site offshore Jefferson
County, Texas, near the Beaumont and
Port Arthur, Texas industrial corridor. It
is expected to be the first major offshore
carbon sequestration site in the US. The
lease maintains an estimated sequestra-
tion capacity of 225 million to 275 million
metric tons of CO 2 .
Talos separately announced that it had
established a CCS strategic alliance with
Core Laboratories to provide technical
evaluation and assurance services for
CCS subsurface analysis, including the
company’s upcoming 2022 stratigraphic
evaluation wells.
BP and Chevron each recently
announced that they have joined the Global
Center for Maritime Decarbonization
(GCMD). Singapore-based GCMD was set
up last year to help drive decarbonization
of the maritime industry . It aims to help
the maritime industry meet or exceed
the International Maritime Organization’s
GHG emission reduction goals for 2030
and 2050.
BP’s partnership adds $7.4 million (S$10
million ) in funding for GCMD.
Chevron said its involvement aims to
help support GCMD’s efforts to develop
potentially scalable lower-carbon tech-
nologies – including those that enable the
use of ammonia as a maritime fuel – and
the commercial means to enable their
adoption. Nabors Industries invests in
geothermal tech company
Nabors Industries has invested $8
million into GA Drilling, a geothermal
technology company with headquarters
in Bratislava, Slovakia . The investment
expands Nabors’ commitment to deep-
drilling technologies that can tap super-
hot, ultra-deep rock reservoirs.
GA Drilling ’s PLASMABIT drilling tool
will be integrated into Nabors’ automated
and lower-emission drilling operations,
accelerating field commercialization and
eliminating traditional economic barriers
of ultra-deep projects to expand global
access to geothermal energy .
D R I L L I N G C O N T R AC T O R • M AY/J U N E 202 2
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