Swedish oil and gas company Lundin Energy said it has sold the world’s first ever certified carbon neutrally produced oil to Italian refinery Saras from its Edvard Grieg field, offshore Norway.
Edvard Grieg field is certified as low carbon at 3.8 kg of CO2 per barrel of oil equivalent (boe) for the full life of field emissions, including exploration, development and production, five times less than the world average.
In order to supply a fully carbon neutral barrel to Saras, residual emissions of 2,302 tonnes CO2 were compensated through a nature-based carbon capture project, certified by the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS). In addition, the entire trade was independently certified as carbon neutral by Intertek.
The Edvard Grieg field is the first oil field in the world to be independently certified by Intertek, under its CarbonClear certification.
Nick Walker, president and CEO of Lundin Energy, said: “We were the first company to have one of its field’s carbon emissions independently certified as low carbon, and this certified carbon neutral transaction with Saras, is the next stage in what we believe will become a key value differentiator for Lundin Energy. The provenance of a barrel and how it is produced is increasingly important, as society and industry require lower carbon feedstocks to achieve emission reduction targets and meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. This trade has been enabled by our industry leading decarbonisation strategy and offers a proof point of where the crude market is heading and the potential value that can be realised through efficient, industry leading emissions reductions.”
Edvard Grieg is a field in the Utsira High area in the central North Sea, 35 km south of the Grane and Balder fields. It was discovered in 2007, and the plan for development and operation (PDO) was approved in 2012. The field has been producing better than expected and recoverable volumes have increased significantly since the PDO.
Lundin owns 65% stake in Edvard Grieg, with partners OMV 20% and Wintershall 15%
From 2025, every barrel produced by Lundin Energy, will be produced as carbon neutral.
Carbon neutrality projects across the oil supply chain are accelerating. Earlier this year, Splash reported on Oxy Low Carbon Ventures’ (OLCV), a division of Occidental, world-first shipment of carbon-neutral oil.
On January 28, 2m barrels of oil was delivered by Pantheon’s Sea Pearl VLCC to Reliance Industries in India.
This transaction, which was arranged in conjunction with Macquarie, is believed to be the energy industry’s first major petroleum shipment for which greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with the entire crude lifecycle, well head through combustion of end products, were offset.
