• Thursday, March 28, 2024
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Equinor pledges to slash greenhouse gas emissions in Norway

Equinor

Equinor has pledged to cut its greenhouse gas emissions from Norwegian oil and gasfields by 40 per cent in the next decade as the state-controlled petroleum group positions itself as a survivor in the debate on potential stranded assets.

The Norwegian oil and gas major said it would cut its emissions from production in Norway by 70 per cent by 2040 and to near zero by 2050 from its current level, which is equivalent to about 13m tonnes of carbon dioxide a year.

But it gave no goals for reducing emissions from the use or burning of its oil and gas, which in 2018 amounted to the equivalent of about 314m tonnes of carbon dioxide, leading some environmentalists to claim the move was mere “greenwashing”.

“We know we will need oil and gas for some time, but less so than we produce today. So for me it’s a question of which oil and gas. It’s about increasing competitiveness,” said Eldar Sætre, Equinor’s chief executive.

Equinor’s new targets were disclosed a day before it opens the biggest new oilfield in the North Sea in decades. The Johan Sverdrup field will be unveiled by Norway’s prime minister on Tuesday in a sign of its importance for the Scandinavian country, which could earn about $100bn in tax revenues from it over the next five decades.

The emissions from the new field’s production are about 700g of carbon dioxide per barrel compared with a global average of 18kg, according to Equinor, because of its use of electricity from the mainland — which in Norway’s case means mostly hydroelectric power — rather than using gas-fired turbines on the platform.

Mr Sætre said that by using mostly electrification — particularly of large existing fields — and investing NKr50bn over the next decade, Equinor could cut about 5m tonnes from its production emissions. He added that the investments would be profitable for the company because it would minimise the amount of carbon taxes and offsets it had to buy.

Both Equinor and the Norwegian state are promoting oil from the Nordic country as some of the “greenest” in the world and argue that only the lowest-emitting producers should continue as demand for oil decreases in the coming decades. Equinor predicts that Norway’s oil and gas production will be less than half its current levels by 2050. “I would prefer Johan Sverdrup oil and gas rather than from other fields,” added Mr Sætre.

But environmentalists criticised the measures as window dressing. “This is more like a PR sham than real climate solutions,” said Silje Lundberg, head of the Norwegian Society for the Conservation of Nature.

She added that to stay under the 1.5C maximum warming target envisioned in the Paris climate agreement, zero-emissions were needed by 2050 but that fields such as Johan Sverdrup — with an estimated 50-year lifetime — meant that Equinor planned to produce oil and gas up to 2070 and beyond.

“Today’s news is just another way to greenwash the company’s continued business strategy, which in reality is a bet against the Paris agreement,” she said.

Equinor is increasingly investing in non-oil projects such as offshore wind, carbon storage and hydrogen production. Mr Sætre said the group would reveal its thinking on how to reduce so-called scope 3 emissions — those that occur when the oil is burnt or used — in February at its annual capital markets day.