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ADNOC announces comprehensive 2030 sustainability goals

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Hydrocarbon Engineering,


ADNOC has recently announced a set of comprehensive sustainability goals, extending its legacy of responsible oil and gas production and reinforcing its longstanding commitment to environmental stewardship.

The announcement was made by Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE Minister of State and ADNOC Group CEO, while speaking at the opening ceremony of the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week.

The sustainability goals support ADNOC’s vision to become leaders in sustainability, maximising value for the UAE. They also underscore ADNOC’s strong environmental, social and governance performance as the company responds to rising global energy demand and delivers its 2030 smart growth strategy. In addition, they are aligned with the UN’s sustainable development goals on responsible consumption and production, climate action, protecting biodiversity and enhancing economic opportunity.

As part of its sustainability goals, ADNOC plans to decrease its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions intensity by 25% by 2030, strengthening its position as one of the least carbon-intensive oil and gas companies in the world. According to the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers, ADNOC currently ranks in the top five lowest GHG emitters in the oil and gas industry and has one of the lowest methane intensities of 0.01%.

ADNOC also commits to limit its freshwater consumption ratio to below 0.5% of total water use. Presently, over 99% of the water ADNOC uses for cooling purposes is extracted seawater which is discharged back to sea after undergoing treatment to ensure compliance with ADNOC’s strict discharge standards.

In addition, ADNOC will continue to protect and support biodiversity across its operations and the broader local environment. As part of this commitment, ADNOC plans to plant 10 million mangrove seedlings in the Al Dhafra Region in Abu Dhabi by the end of 2022.

Mangroves have enormous capacity to absorb atmospheric CO2 and other GHG by trapping them in flooded soils. Mangroves also support rich biodiversity, provide habitats for marine life, and act as a valuable natural defence against rising sea levels and coastal erosion.

Over the same period, ADNOC plans to achieve In-Country Value (ICV) of 50% across its full value chain by 2030, building on the momentum of the success of its ICV programme launched in January 2018 to encourage private-sector partnerships, catalyse socio-economic development, improve knowledge-transfer and generate skilled jobs for UAE nationals.

ADNOC’s ICV programme is a key enabler of its commitment to drive progress and development in the UAE. To date, the programme has driven more than AED 44 billion back into the UAE economy and created over 1500 private-sector jobs for UAE nationals since it was launched in January 2018.

ADNOC’s sustainability goals are underpinned by a commitment to be the global benchmark for safety and asset integrity.

Dr. Al Jaber said: “ADNOC’s sustainability goals further demonstrate our commitment to responsible production which has been embedded in our business practices since the company was established in 1971.

“We are taking a comprehensive and holistic approach to our sustainability strategy in terms of our contribution to the economy, the environment and ADNOC’s most important asset, the people. We are strengthening our environmental performance as we expand our operations to ensure we can deliver more energy with fewer emissions for decades to come.

“Crucially, we are reinforcing our role as the primary catalyst of the UAE’s socio-economic development through our ICV goal, while maintaining a firm focus on the safety of our people and the integrity of our assets. Building on 50 years of responsible production, ADNOC will continue to work in partnership with key stakeholders to prioritise sustainability and we will continue to make significant investment in new and innovative technologies to improve environmental performance.”

To enable ADNOC’s goal to reduce its GHG intensity by 25%, the company is building on the success of the region’s first commercial-scale carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) facility.

Currently, the Al Reyadah facility has the capacity to capture 800 000 tpy of CO2. ADNOC plans to expand the capacity of this programme six-fold by capturing CO2 from its own gas plants, with the aim of reaching 5 million tpy of CO2 by 2030 – the equivalent of the annual carbon capture capacity of over 5 million acres of forest over twice the size of the UAE.

One of the key success factors of ADNOC’s high environmental performance is its longstanding zero intentional flaring policy, which has reduced the volume of natural gas flared by more than 90% since the inception of the company.

ADNOC is also proactively preserving fragile ecosystems in its areas of operation and protecting biodiversity, marine development, and ecosystems within the communities it operates. To date, ADNOC has planted over 250 000 mangrove seedlings in Abu Dhabi to preserve the biodiversity of the UAE coastline. ADNOC has also built 293 artificial coral reefs to protect marine life and maintain ocean health.

Environmental protection is a key pillar of ADNOC’s ‘oil and gas 4.0’ mission to modernise the oil and gas industry in order to remain an essential pillar of the future diversified energy mix. The company prioritises investments in state-of-the-art technology to monitor and reduce environmental impacts of its operations.

A bespoke health, safety, and environment (HSE) information system is built into ADNOC’s Panorama Digital Command Centre to give instant, real-time readings across multiple environmental key performance indicators by harvesting information from millions of data sensors.

Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/the-environment/16012020/adnoc-announces-comprehensive-2030-sustainability-goals/

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