Managing our emissions

It takes energy to produce energy. Shell measures, reports and manages the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) from all operations where we have a controlling interest. We do this, amongst others, by working to end continuous flaring, improving our energy efficiency and working on technologies to capture and store CO2.

Visit our environmental data section and learn more about our greenhouse gas emissionsFinding reductions to offset the rising emissions from our changing portfolio is getting harder. The amount of energy needed for us to produce each unit of oil or natural gas is already more than 50% higher than in 2000. It will continue to rise as our fields age and as more of our production comes from heavier oil and oil sands.

Producing more low sulphur transport fuels will help lower our customers’ CO2 emissions. However, it will also increase our direct emissions, since more refining energy is needed to make them.

So, how are we managing our emissions? We are:

• Working to end continuous flaring: Capturing and using the natural gas produced during oil production
• Improving energy efficiency in our refineries, chemical plants and production facilities
• Factoring future costs of emitting GHGs into our business decisions so our new facilities have lower CO2 designs
• CO2 capture and storage: Continuing to work on demonstration projects to drive down costs and demonstrate safety
• Measuring our GHG emissions worldwide in a consistent and transparent way: Learn more about our greenhouse gas emissions and how we are reporting our environmental and social data.

Where do our emissions come from?

Our greenhouse gas emissions, most of which are CO2, typically come from:

• Combustion of fuel in our refineries and chemical plants to generate the energy required to manufacture our products.
• Flaring of associated natural gas at oil production wells. In many remote locations there is no local market for this gas and no facilities for capturing it and transporting it to an alternative market.
• Combustion of fuel at oil and gas production sites to power the necessary drilling, pumping and processing equipment.
• Combustion of fuel in ships that transport crude oil and oil products.
• Leakage of light hydrocarbon gas from storage vessels, pipes and processing equipment.

→ Shell Sustainability Report 2006

Visit the online Shell Sustainability Report 2006 and discover what we say about climate change - opens in a new window.