Page 5 - NorthAmOil Week 37 2021

NorthAmOil COMMENTARY NorthAmOil

needed to bring down emissions even further hydrogen-fuelled locomotive and associated
beyond 2028 are not yet economic. Even more hydrogen-fuelling infrastructure, will begin
ambitious policy and the development of large immediately at various locations across the
carbon offset markets will also be needed to US.
achieve net zero further down the line. They will also seek to demonstrate hydrogen’s
“These are all things that we’re working on,” use in prime power.
Wirth said. “It’s a significant improvement in
just this decade that we’ve outlined. And these What next?
net-zero aspirations that most people have These projects are just recent examples of Chev-
made – 2050 is, you know, is the date that they’ve ron’s lower-carbon focus, with the super-major
targeted them for. And we’re going to make sig- having announced numerous others over the
nificant progress just this decade. There are two past few months. With the planned rise in low-
decades that follow for more work on technol- er-carbon investment, such projects are set to
ogy, on policy and things like offset markets.” become either more plentiful or larger in scale. Some of the
More still may be needed to be done, how-
New projects ever, to satisfy shareholders, who voted in May technologies that
All of this comes as Chevron continues to in favour of a proposal to cut the super-major’s will be needed
announce more low-carbon projects, on which it Scope 3 emissions – those stemming from the
is often collaborating with partners – both from use of its products by customers. Scope 3 emis- to bring down
inside and outside the oil and gas industry. sions are considered to be the most difficult
In the case of Chevron’s newly announced emissions to tackle, and the proposal sharehold- emissions even
collaboration with Enterprise, the two compa- ers voted for was lacking in detail on how much
nies will study and evaluate opportunities for Chevron would need to cut such emissions, or further beyond
CCS from their respective business operations by when. But in a world where decarbonisation 2028 are not yet
in the US Midcontinent and Gulf Coast regions. is increasingly a priority, the super-major is
The initial phase of the study is anticipated to likely to remain under pressure to keep ramping economic.
last six months. up its emissions-cutting efforts.
For the hydrogen partnership with Cat- Environmental groups this week were criti-
erpillar, no timelines have been announced. cal of Chevron’s investment plans, saying the
However, the companies said the goal of their super-major’s focus was on offsetting emissions
collaboration was to confirm the feasibility from oil and gas output rather than reducing
and performance of hydrogen for use as a oil production. However, Chevron is likely to
commercially viable alternative to traditional maintain that realistic targets are needed, and
fuels for line-haul rail and marine vessels. realistic alternatives to oil and gas on a global
Work on the rail demonstration, involving a scale are yet to be established.™

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