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Devon sets voluntary emissions reduction target
US
A Devon production pad in the Permian’s Delaware sub-basin
DEVON Energy announced this week that it has set itself a voluntary target for reducing emis- sions from its oil and gas operations. In a June 10 statement, the company said the move was in line with its “core value of being a good environ- mental steward”.
Devon is aiming to achieve a methane-inten- sity rate of 0.28% or lower by 2025. e company noted that in 2018 its methane-intensity rate was estimated at 0.32%, though this is pending a review by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and third-party veri cation. Dev- on’s methane-intensity rate is calculated based on emissions from oil and gas production facilities that the company operates as a percentage of the natural gas output.
Devon said this method of accounting for emissions across all of its operations goes beyond what is required by the EPA and “represents a signi cant step toward managing climate risk”. e company’s method includes emissions from operations that fall below the threshold that require EPA reporting and would otherwise go unreported, it noted.
As part of its emissions reduction strategy, Devon said it would pursue leak detection and repair (LDAR) at sites where the process is not
required by federal or state regulation. It added that its new methane-intensity measure would be a component of executive and employee com- pensation, along with short-term emissions per- formance targets that already exist.
“By continuing to operate responsibly and increasing our focus on leak detection and repair, we’re con dent we can meet this ambi- tious target,” said Devon’s president and CEO, Dave Hager, in the company’s statement. “ e actions we’re taking rea rm our commitment to responsible production operations, going beyond what is required by law in pursuit of continuous improvement in environmental performance.”
Devon’s pursuit of emissions reduction strategies comes as the government of US President Donald Trump is trying to loosen regulations on the oil and gas industry in an attempt to spur production. However, several producers are now setting themselves volun- tary environmental targets instead. In Febru- ary, Chevron announced that it planned to set greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions targets and tie executive compensation and rank-and- le bonuses to the reductions. is was the rst such move by a US oil major.™
BP’s annual review shows US gains
US
Shale plays accounted for the majority of the US’ production growth.
SUPER-MAJOR BP has raised its estimate of US crude reserves at the end of 2018 by 22% in its annual Statistical Review of World Energy.
e company upgraded US oil reserves to 61.2 billion barrels at the end of 2018, from 50 billion barrels at the end of 2017. is came as the US also became the world’s largest oil pro- ducer in 2018. Indeed, BP noted that the US recorded the largest-ever annual production increases by any country for both oil and gas last year, with shale plays accounting for the majority of the growth.
“What you saw last year was really quite amazing, a unique double rst for the US,” BP’s chief economist, Spencer Dale, told reporters ahead of BP’s presentation of its annual review. “In case there was any doubt, the US shale revo- lution is alive and kicking,” he said.
Total global oil reserves at the end of 2018 totalled 1.73 trillion barrels, up 2 billion barrels on 2017, said BP. According to the super-ma- jor, the global reserves-to-production ratio showed that oil reserves in 2018 accounted for
50 years of current output.
BP also noted that US oil demand grew by
500,000 barrels per day (bpd) last year, marking its largest increase in over 10 years. e spike came “in sharp contrast to the trend decline seen in the decade or so prior to the oil price crash of 2014”, BP said.
Strong US oil demand in recent years has been concentrated in first gasoline and then diesel, BP said. But it added that the more rapid growth recorded last year was driven by higher demand for ethane as new production capacity came online.
Overall global demand in 2018 grew by 1.4 million bpd or 1.5%, which was above average according to the super-major. is growth was led by the developing world, with China and India accounting for almost two-thirds of the global increase at 700,000 bpd and 300,000 bpd respectively.
Global oil production, meanwhile, was reported to have increased by 2.2 million bpd or 2.4% in 2018, double its 10-year aver- age growth.™
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