Reducing our carbon footprint

The Carbon Footprint Reduction (CFR) team, created in 2019 in the Exploration & Production branch, mobilizes the technical expertise at the CSTJF to accompany the reduction of CO₂ and methane emissions in the affiliates. On site, the CFR correspondents convey the Company’s zero carbon strategy

By 2025, TotalEnergies total greenhouse gas emissions (on operated assets) should drop below the 40-million-ton threshold, compared with 46 million tons emitted in 2015. The Company is aiming for a 40% reduction of its net emissions in 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2050.

"To reduce greenhouse gas emissions, we need to transform the way we operate. The CFR team acts on three major levers - flaring, methane and energy efficiency - and each one has its own roadmap and objectives. We call upon specialists from CSTJF and PERL based on their expertises: project design, rotating machinery monitoring, methane detection, satellite image analysis…"

Cécile Coudroy,
CFR project lead

 

Producing responsibly

The first lever is to progressively eliminate flaring, which involves burning the excess gas produced as part of the oil or natural gas production process. Why do we want to reduce flaring? Because it generates CO₂ and methane emissions into the atmosphere, two gases that contribute to global warming and which therefore threaten the Earth’s balance. "We have pledged to totally eliminate routine (continuous) flaring on all our facilities by 2030". How can it be reduced? By modifying the oil and gas effluent treatment schemes so that the gas can be recovered, transported and valorized. A process already implemented in 2023 in Nigeria on the OML 100 field, and in Denmark, where routine flaring has been fully eliminated. The final step to extinguish the flares and therefore eliminate safety flaring will be to install closed flares: A new design that can be used to maintain flare efficiency, but without a pilot, 365 days a year, if no incidents are detected.

 

Reducing methane emissions

Reducing flaring has a positive impact on the quantity of methane released into the atmosphere, but there are other sources of methane that need to be detected and eliminated. Moreover, TotalEnergies has developed innovative solutions to improve methane detection and quantification, using drones equipped with sensors that regularly fly over the different sites (AUSEA project). It involves converting more and more items of natural-gas operated equipment to electricity or compressed air.

 

Optimizing our energy efficiency

That’s our third lever. "We are asking all sites to implement an EnMS (Energy Management System)", explains Cécile Coudroy. "A document that lists all the site energy consumers, together with an energy management plan". Process specialists visit the sites to analyze the energy consumption of each item of equipment (pumps, compressors, diesel engines, power generators, etc.), run simulations and find solutions that use less energy. The priority? To identify "quick win" solutions that are easy to implement so that we can rapidly reduce our emissions: for example, it involves distributing the energy requirements of equipment so that a turbo-generator can be switched off. At a later stage, each site must plan projects with greater investments in the Long Term Plan, which goes from replacing compressors to the electrification of equipment, and connecting facilities to a fully-renewable or hybrid energy source, making them greener.

"This approach urges the business lines to ask new questions, and think about other ways of producing," explains Cécile Coudroy. "Today, we no longer decide on a new oil or gas development based on cost, profitability and return on investment criteria alone - its carbon footprint is also considered". To change mindsets inhouse, CFR has created a mascot, Charlie the dragon, who breathes GHG. Charlie features in a series of short awareness-raising videos, shown at the beginning of the ‘Sustainab’All Moments’ meetings.

"First and foremost, I'm responsible for coordinating reporting for all CFR projects in the affiliates: we centralize the information and cost data, as well as reductions in GHG and therefore CO₂ and methane on all our sites, whether operated or non-operated. I’m also responsible for low-carbon communication in the E&P branch: that means putting all the useful information for our CFR community on a Sharepoint site, organizing a webinar once a month, where we focus on our affiliates’ achievements, sending out a monthly Newsletter containing the latest useful information and being the relay for all inhouse and external communication on CFR (communication on financial aspects, conferences, TownHall meetings, etc.) Cécile Coudroy concludes.