Throughout the panel discussion, Al-Mulla expounded Aramco’s sustainability initiatives, including lowering emissions from wholly owned and operated assets, scaling up new lower carbon solutions and developing technological solutions for the future in this space.
Al-Mulla noted,” We announced our decarbonatization strategy with the target of GHG reduction of 52 MMtCO2e by 2035 and achieve net-zero Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions across our wholly owned operated assets by 2050. To achieve reductions in GHG emissions by 2035, we are focusing on five key levers: energy efficiency across our upstream and downstream assets; further reductions in methane and flaring; increased use of renewable energy sources; Carbon Capture & Storage (CCS); and development or purchase of offsets to help address hard-to-abate emissions. One key example to demonstrate the energy efficiency lever, Aramco have scale power co-generation facilities, which delivered a utility scale size of 5.3 GW of power in 2023. These are highly efficient solutions compared to conventional power and steam generation plants. In the methane and flaring reduction lever, we remain to be in the lowest pocket, with methane intensity of 0,05%, well below the Oil & Gas Climate Initiative ambition (0.2% by 2025) and near zero routine flaring, leveraging the captured flare into sales gas, a valuable product for power generation and industries, through a Master Gas System built since 1975. In the renewables lever, we contribute to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia renewable plans of 12 GW of solar and wind. In CCS, we are pursuing the development of a global CCS hub of 9 mmtonCO2e in 2027 in partnership with global leaders. All these four levers contributed to our 2022 upstream carbon intensity which remains among the lowest in the industry and if all industry reach to this level of carbon intensity, at least 1 Gton of CO2 emissions will be avoided annually. And by achieving the set forward Targets in these four levers, we have an ambition to further lower our upstream carbon intensity by 15% by 2035. The fifth complementary lever is the carbon offsets in which we planted 24 million mangroves trees and plan to plant 300 million mangrove trees by 2035, complemented by purchasing high quality carbon offsets through the newly established regional voluntary carbon market in Saudi Arabia.
Almulla noted that as part of our new energy ambitions Aramco is introducing blue hydrogen commercialization plan of achieving 2MMtpa capacity by the year 2030.
Commenting on how Aramco is driving decarbonization efforts in the oil and gas industry, Almulla mentioned that Saudi Aramco was proud to join with more than 50 of our peers and sign the Oil & Gas Decarbonization Charter (OGDC), jointly launched by the KSA and UAE. The OGDC is a platform that encourages oil and gas community to join the decarbonization efforts by sharing knowledge and best practices. Together, OGDC signatories represent more than 40% of global oil production.
Commenting on investments that exemplify Aramco’s commitment to the energy transition, Al-Mulla said, “Aramco expanded its global venture capital arm, Aramco Ventures, to $ 7 billion in Jan 2024. Aramco Ventures invests in various startups for climate technological solutions through $1.5B sustainability fund that make a difference in addressing the challenge of balancing energy security, affordability and sustainability.”
“We believe the energy transition will not happen without a corresponding material transition, where carbon-based materials are expected to be used to support global emission reduction and net zero ambitions. Aramco is maintaining positive momentum through our ambitious chemicals program. We are striving to convert up to 4 million barrels of liquids-to-chemicals per day to enable the global growth in material transition. In addition Aramco is working on developing high-performance enhancing materials through global collaborations with prominent academia, and industry leaders in many sectors including oil & gas, building & construction, automotive, renewables and packaging to strengthen and complement existing programs and push the boundaries of innovation in which Aramco deployed more than 15,000 km of polymers-based pipelines replacing steel ” Al-Mulla added.
The premier global gathering for international sustainability leaders attracted more than 1,000 influential leaders and changemakers from global corporations, the financial sector, start-ups, foundations, media, civil societies, and academia who engaged in action-focused dialogues for achieving the net-zero, nature positive transition for the world during the full-day Summit.
