Jump menu

Shell Global

Shell Global

Country Selector

Secondary Navigation | back to top

Main content |  back to top

Environmental data 2003-2012
  2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003
Greenhouse gas emissions (GHG)                    
Direct total GHGs (million tonnes CO2 equivalent) [A] 72 74 76 69 75 82 88 93 101 102
Carbon dioxide (CO2) (million tonnes) 69 71 72 66 72 79 85 89 96 97
Methane (CH4) (thousand tonnes) 93 133 128 127 126 119 124 173 192 187
Nitrous oxide (N2O) (thousand tonnes) 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 3
Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) (tonnes) 23 22 23 25 23 28 24 20 13 9
Indirect total GHGs (million tonnes CO2 equivalent) 9 10 9 9 n/c n/c n/c n/c n/c n/c
Flaring
                   
Flaring (Upstream) (million tonnes CO2 equivalent) 7.7 10.0 10.4 7.8 8.8 9.7 14.3 20.8 24.6 24.1
Flaring (Upstream) (million tonnes hydrocarbon flared) 2.3 3.4 3.6 2.6 2.8 3.4 4.8 7.0 8.1 8.1
Nigeria [B] 1.5 2.0 2.4 1.9 2.3 2.5 3.7 5.8 6.6 6.4
Rest of world [C] 0.8 1.4 1.2 0.7 0.5 0.9 1.1 1.2 1.5 1.7
Energy intensity                    
Upstream excluding Oil Sands and GTL (gigajoules per tonne production) [D] 0.78 0.75 0.74 0.76 0.74 0.78 0.78 0.71 0.69 0.69
Oil Sands (gigajoules per tonne production) [E] 6.6 6.4 6.8 6.6 6.4 5.7 5.3 5.2 5.8 10.0
Refineries: Refinery Energy Index [F] 98.4 100.8 101.8 102.2 98.9 98.6 98.4 98.0 96.7 97.8
Chemical plants: Chemicals Energy Index 91.7 90.8 89.3 92.0 93.0 92.6 92.5 95.8 93.3 98.3
Acid gases and VOCs                    
Sulphur oxides (SOx) (thousand tonnes SO2) 113 136 139 141 175 212 233 226 247 257
Nitrogen oxides (NOX) (thousand tonnes NO2) 147 146 159 142 150 145 154 157 172 193
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) (thousand tonnes) 89 129 147 126 130 148 185 199 213 226
Ozone-depleting emissions                    
CFCs/halons/trichloroethane (tonnes) 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.4 1.4 0.6 0.3 0.8 2.3 3.0
Hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) (tonnes)
8 11 21 24 26 27 35 35 42 44
Spills and discharges [H, I]                    
Sabotage spills – volume (thousand tonnes) [J] 3.3 1.6 3.0 14.0 6.5 3.4 1.9 1.5 1.1 0.9
Sabotage spills – number [J] 137 118 112 95 115 197 123 111 101 105
Operational spills – volume (thousand tonnes) [K] 2.1 6.0 2.9 1.4 8.8 3.5 3.9 3.4 3.4 5.0
Nigeria 0.2 5.3 0.7 0.3 7.1 1.6 1.4 0.1 0.0 0.4
Rest of world 1.9 0.7 2.2 1.1 1.7 1.9 2.5 3.3 3.4 4.6
Operational spills – number [L] 206 211 195 275 275 392 465 560 711 678
Nigeria [M] 36 64 32 37 42 52 41 63 48 48
Rest of world 170 147 163 238 233 340 424 497 663 630
Hurricane spills – volume (thousand tonnes) 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 2.9 1.0 0.0
Oil in effluents to surface environment (thousand tonnes) 1.0 1.3 1.6 1.5 1.7 1.6 1.8 2.3 2.1 2.3
Water                    
Fresh water use (million cubic metres) 203 209 202 198 224 235 n/c n/c n/c n/c
Waste disposal                    
Hazardous (thousand tonnes) 820 740 1,048 962 688 907 716 631 714 675
Non-hazardous (thousand tonnes)
2,295 1,850 1,079 1,139 996 1,899 1,154 632 421 443
Total waste (thousand tonnes) [G, N]
3,115 2,590 2,127 2,101 1,684 2,806 1,870 1,263 1,135 1,118

[A] Oil and gas industry guidelines (IPIECA/API/OGP) indicate that a number of sources of uncertainty can contribute to the overall uncertainty of a corporate emissions inventory. CO2 equivalent is a term used to express the total emissions of the major greenhouse gases, including CO2, methane, nitrous oxide and hydrofluorocarbons.

[B] Nigeria includes SPDC onshore operations (1.4 million tonnes flared in 2012) and SNEPCo offshore operations (0.1 million tonnes flared in 2012).

[C] Flaring from the Pearl GTL plant in Qatar and the Majnoon field in Iraq amounted to 0.2 and 0.1 million tonnes of hydrocarbon respectively in 2012.

[D] 2012 data reported on a consistent basis with previous years in accordance with IPIECA/API/OGP guidance 2005.

[E] The data includes mining and upgrading operations. It does not include in situ production. We have updated our figures following recalculation of the data.

[F] Data is indexed to 2002, based on Solomon Associates Energy Intensity Index 2006 methodology.

[G] We have updated our 2011 and 2010 figures following review of the data.

[H] All spill volumes and numbers are for spills over 100 kilograms.

[I] As of the end of March 2013, there were three spills under investigation in Nigeria that may result in adjustments to the 2012 data.

[J] All sabotage- and theft-related spills have occurred in Nigeria except in 2007 (0.7 thousand tonnes outside Nigeria) and 2006 (0.6 thousand tonnes outside Nigeria).

[K] Nigeria includes SPDC onshore operations and SNEPCo offshore operations. A single spill at the Bonga field offshore Nigeria amounted to 4.8 thousand tonnes in 2011.

[L] We have updated our 2011 figure following review of the data. The numbers of operational spills reported for 2004 and 2005 contain a small number of hurricane spills.

[M] Nigeria includes SPDC onshore operations (36 operational spills in 2012) and SNEPCo offshore operations (0 operational spills in 2012).

[N] In 2012 we recycled, reused or sold over 300 thousand tonnes of material that would otherwise have been disposed of as waste.

n/c Not calculated.