Energy, telecoms and IT collaborate

The strategies for climate change mitigation are based on the company’s vision of becoming one of the five major integrated energy producers in the world, with the mission to operate both profitably and safely, with social and environmental responsibility and committed to sustainable development.

As the biggest company in Brazil and in Latin America, Petrobras has an important leadership role for sustainable development. Petrobras’s 2020 Strategic Plan emphasises the importance of climate change mitigation, establishing objectives in order to achieve standards of excellence in the energy industry with regard to the intensity of emissions in processes and products. Petrobras believes that climate change mitigation requires a comprehensive strategy focusing on energy efficiency, flaring reduction, renewable energy production, and research and technological development.

In 2002, the Company implemented a System for Atmospheric Emissions Management named SIGEA®, which integrates all company activities with more than 30 thousand source entries registered, providing a detailed inventory of greenhouse gases (GHG) and regulated air pollutants and assists, with the data gathering, consolidation and report assessment, a critical analysis of emissions and the optimisation and continuous improvement of processes.

Petrobras reports its GHG emissions inventory, which is verified by a third party, every year in the Company’s Sustainability Report, as well as the initiatives taken to reduce GHG emissions. In 2005, the company incorporated the climate change issue into its corporate strategy and set voluntary goals. In 2007, the Strategic Climate Change Project was created, setting guidelines to increase the energy efficiency and to identify opportunities in new technologies to reduce emissions and new energy sources. With the measures adopted over these years, Petrobras will invest $200m in research and technological development on climate change mitigation over the 2010-2015 period. This is a voluntary commitment, and considers an attenuation of the emissions growth curve, without limiting business expansion. These objectives are attained with the deployment of energy efficiency projects, through operational improvements, flaring reduction, implementing new technologies and by using renewable energies. 

Recently the discovery of over 10 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe) in recoverable volume (Pre-Salt Cluster) has been announced, which represents the increase of one million boe per day installed capacity production until 2017. Petrobras has assumed a pro-active stance and, prior to any regulatory requirement, voluntarily defined as a basic directive for the production development project in the Pre-Salt Cluster not to release the CO2 associated with the natural gas produced, by the use of CO2 reinjection techniques. To achieve this ambitious target, several technological paradigms need to be overcome, including offshore CO2 capturing, its separation from the natural gas produced, and finding the adequate alternative for the final destination of the CO2 produced.

Petrobras has set up two technological programmes to tackle the challenge of CO2 capture, transportation, and geological storage: PROCLIMA (the Technological Programme for Climate Change), created in 2007, which is both wide-ranging and long-term in nature, and PRO-CO2 (the Technological Programme for the Management of CO2 in Pre-Salt Development), set up in 2009, and focused on the issues raised by CO2 in developing the Pre-Salt Cluster and, therefore, with shorter-term goals. Also in the area of R&D, Petrobras is contributing with the Climate Network, a technical cooperation and financial support initiative for science and technology entities throughout Brazil.

Created in 2008, and currently composed of 12 research institutions, the network seeks to develop national qualifications and infrastructure to capture, transport, and store CO2. It also researches issues such as impacts, vulnerabilities and adaptation to climate change.

A total of $30m was invested between 2006 and 2009 in the areas of carbon sequestration and climate change, and an additional $200m will be invested over the 2010-2015 period.

Energy efficiency and flaring reduction
An Internal Energy Conservation Programme has been in place since the 70s. The Programme has its implementation through 48 Internal Commissions for Energy Conservation. Projects of energy efficiency enhancement are implemented and they have the purpose of both reducing fuel and electricity consumption in all company units. Over the past five years, more than $170m has been invested in energy efficiency projects, achieving savings of approximately 3,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

In relation to flaring reduction, the Company invested $200m in the Programme of Optimising Associated Gas Use, seeking the reduction of gas flaring in 24 platforms. With 93 initiatives implemented, including installation and adaptation of compressors, new gas pipes and optimisation of processing units, the company achieved significant improvement in the recovery of natural gas in recent years. The potential gain in the gas utilisation was 4.2 million m3/d. Apart from the programme mentioned above, $98m was invested in two reservoir injection projects in the Campos Basin, enabling storage, in the reservoir rock, of up to 2.4 m3/d of associated gas in the case of upset in the processing, transport or in the market.

Petrobras has adopted as a corporate strategy the plan to “act globally in the biofuel segment, with significant participation in the biodiesel and ethanol businesses.” In 2008 a Biofuel subsidiary was established to be responsible for the development of production and management of biodiesel and ethanol projects. The Biofuel Company owns four biodiesel plants. A total of $3.5bn will be invested over the next five years, with a substantial part of this – $530m – earmarked for the research and development of new technologies including second-generation biofuels. The production of bioethanol and biodiesel, in addition to contributing to climate change mitigation, is in line with company’s directive to support sustainable production by applying its R&D resources in species of biomass that are native to the Brazilian semi-arid regions, and will increase the use of family-run agricultural businesses. Since the 70s, the Company has operated in a number of industrial production stages of ethanol, through the National Ethanol Programme – Proalcool – which allowed Brazil to avoid the emission of approximately 800 million tons of CO2 from 1975 to 2007. The company was also the first one to convert its fleet to ethanol, using engines with components that had been developed and tested at its Research Centre.

In addition to investing in the improvement of process and products, Petrobras sponsors projects aimed at the conservation of natural resources and at the raising of ecological awareness. These projects are included in the Petrobras Environment Programme, which will invest about $250m by 2012. Besides supporting projects related to the theme water, the programme includes issues relating to carbon fixation and avoiding emissions. Considering the area planted and the area of avoided deforestation, the projects avoid the emission of up to 6.8 million tons of CO2.

Further information: www.petrobras.com