Time for re-invention
Understandably as the world transitions away from fossil fuels, the oil majors are now all investing in green energy alternatives and striving to re-invent themselves.
Leading by example
For example Total Quadran, a subsidiary of global oil and energy conglomerate, Total Energies S.A. is one such company. The subsidiary runs more than 300 renewable energy plants, which produce enough Energy to reduce over 130,000 tons of carbon emissions.
Equinor, an energy company with a customer base of over 170 million people, promises to cut its net carbon intensity by 50% and achieve zero emissions in Norway by 2050. Other oil companies that have been at the forefront of environmental protection through research, renewable energy programs and other sustainability strategies include Shell, Exxon, Repsol and Chevron.
A plea
Whilst this is all great news for the future of our planet, the plea from Envorem is for the oil industry not to forget the stuff lying around in the backyard – the legacy of wastes from oil exploration and production.
There has been a great move in the US to clean up the vast number of abandoned well sites across the US although the full extent of the problem is only now coming into the light: Abandoned oil well counts are exploding — now that there’s money on the table.
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law enacted in November, set aside $4.7 billion to plug and remediate these sites and the Department of the Interior is expected to begin distributing funds this summer. It seems in anticipation of funding, well counts have increased by about 40% nationwide in the last year and doubled compared to 2019. The EPA estimates the unplugged orphan well count could be as high as 2.1 million across the U.S.
This is just a part of the legacy of oil production, and worldwide there remain large stockpiles of wastes awaiting remediation. The industry is somewhat caught in a no-win dilemma. With no green processes, or technologies to treat the waste, the energy and emissions from current treatment solutions offer little benefit to the environment overall and, the costs are not insignificant either!
With focus on remediation, Suez have been awarded €107 Million to help clean up in Doha, Qatar
With current methods, clean up and remediation is costly - up to $260 Million in Alberta alone
Kuwait Oil Company are committed to the clean up and are aiming to clean over 2.8 Million m3 of contaminated sand
A solution
It is therefore, unsurprising that the industry has little incentive to act. Envorem’s mission is to help the industry tackle this issue with a new, Green, low-cost technology to deal with many of these wastes and change industry practices by simultaneously reducing operating costs and reducing pollution. Everyone wins, and crucially, so does our planet.
