Reaching the climate neutrality goals by 2050 it depends on the action of industries with a heavy environmental footprint inherent in oil and gas.
Scope Ratings, a European rating agency, has drawn up a study on the carbon footprint in the European oil & gas industry. A study that analyzed in particular the carbon footprint of the six main European companies, including the Italian Eni. The agency points out that the industry’s sustainability commitments are primarily aimed at reducing carbon intensity in their operations, but it is the consumption of energy products that the industry supplies that is responsible for 85% of the overall carbon footprint. of the sector. The integrated oil and gas industry is responsible for more than half of energy-related carbon emissions. About 90% of these emissions come from the use of hydrocarbon products.
The oil & gas majors and their carbon footprint
Scope’s analysis notably shows that the capital expenditures planned by the six largest European oil and gas companies to reduce their carbon emissions are a small part of their windfall gains from high oil and gas prices, given that Russia’s war in Ukraine has rocked energy markets.
TotalEnergies SE of France and Repsol SA of Spain set standards among European integrated oil and gas companies in the oil sector’s progress towards carbon neutrality goals, with Russia’s Gazprom at the other end of the rankings. TotalEnergies’ leading position derives from having predicted a sharp drop in the cost of its greenhouse gas impacts by 2030. “TotalEnergies is the only European major to have defined an explicit quantitative reduction target for so-called GHG emissions scope-3 or indirect, helping to explain its position as an industry leader, ”says Bernhard Bartels, Executive Director of Scope ESG. “Total’s approach is significant given that the industry’s sustainability commitments are primarily aimed at reducing carbon intensity in its operations, while it is the consumption of energy products supplied by industry that is responsible for 85% of the footprint. of the industry’s overall carbon footprint, ”Bartels said.
Spain’s Repsol incurs lower CO2 impact costs than its French rival at € 0.57 per euro of revenue by 2030, but this is a more modest drop of just 9.5% from € 0.63 in the year. 2020.
The Italian ENI is a ‘transformation leader’, says the Scope analyst, thanks to a clear and sustainability-oriented strategy, despite a poorer profile than the multinational BP and the two standard setters Total and Repsol. As for the other majors, BP and Shell are positioned at the lower end due to “their high carbon footprint and the lack of an ambitious management strategy to tackle climate change”, with an estimated drop in the impact costs of the CO2 respectively from 1.3% to EUR1.10 and from 2.6% to EUR1.32 per euro of revenues by 2030.
Mblack garlic Gazprom Russian style which is judged to be “lagging” instead, with the heaviest carbon footprint and no quantified transition strategy.