Environmental performance
We improved or maintained our environmental performance across most areas during 2015. This was due to operational improvements as well as reduced activity and divestments. Details about our environmental performance are provided below and under Managing methane emissions and Flaring for methane and flaring.
Energy efficiency
One of the ways we can manage our direct GHG emissions is to work on improving the energy efficiency of the facilities we operate. The main metric that we use to measure our energy efficiency is energy intensity (the amount of energy consumed for every unit of output).
In 2015, the overall energy intensity for the production of oil and gas in our Upstream business (excluding oil sands and gas-to-liquids) improved slightly compared with 2014. This was partly due to divestments of unconventional assets in the USA and Canada.
All our major upstream facilities have energy-management plans in place to make the best use of those facilities, including the use of improved field management techniques. We expect it will be more difficult in future to maintain the energy-efficiency levels of recent years, as existing fields age and new production comes from more energy-intensive sources. This may increase our upstream energy intensity over time.
In our oil sands operations, energy intensity improved from 6.3 gigajoules for every tonne of production in 2014 to 5.8 gigajoules in 2015. The overall energy intensity for the manufacture of oil products at our refineries worsened, from 94.9 refinery energy index in 2014 to 95.4 in 2015. This was mainly due to more unplanned production shutdowns at several refineries.
The methodology for calculating the energy intensity of our chemical plants was updated in 2015; therefore data for preceding years is not directly comparable and have not been recalculated. Based on the new methodology, the comparable result for 2014 was 90.7, compared with 90.4 which was originally calculated. The increase to 91.6 in 2015 was mainly due to unplanned equipment shutdowns at our chemical plant in Moerdijk. (To read more about our energy efficiency, see Mitigating climate change).
Energy intensity – Refineries
refinery energy index [A]
[A] Indexed to 2002; based on 2006 Solomon EIITM methodology
Energy intensity – Upstream
(excluding Oil Sands and GTL)
gigajoules/tonne production [A]
[A] 2012-2015 data are reported in accordance with IPIECA/API/IOGP guidance 2010
Energy intensity – Chemical plants
chemicals energy index [A]
[A] CEI calculation methodology changed in 2015; therefore, data for prior years are not directly comparable.
Energy intensity – Oil Sands
gigajoules/tonne production [A]
[A] Includes mining and upgrading operations.
Air emissions
We track emissions released into the atmosphere from all our operations. Our sulphur oxides emissions decreased from 97 thousand tonnes in 2014 to 88 thousand tonnes in 2015. This decrease was partly due to using fuel with lower sulphur content in our shipping activities but was partly offset by the higher sulphur content of the crude oil processed by our refineries.
Our nitrogen oxides emissions decreased from 146 thousand tonnes in 2014 to 104 thousand tonnes in 2015. The realignment of reporting boundaries in 2015 to follow guidance from IPIECA/API/IOGP, in part affected these numbers.
Our emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) decreased to 125 thousand tonnes in 2015 compared with 151 thousand tonnes in 2014. This was mostly due to a reduction of venting in Majnoon, Iraq. We expect our VOC emissions to further decrease in the coming years as a result of our efforts to reduce flaring and venting.
