Denbury recognizes that climate change is a continuing global concern for governments, businesses, and society. The reduction of carbon emissions is important, and we take the responsibility of protecting our environment seriously. Part of our obligation is to report greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions and develop procedures and methods to collect data critical for calculating these emissions. In addition, our operating strategy, which focuses on CO2 EOR, has measurable environmental benefits. We are committed to utilizing emerging technologies, where feasible, to capture or reduce emissions and to improve our carbon efficiency.
We are committed to engaging with stakeholders, policy makers, regulators, and our industry on climate change issues and to addressing our impact on the environment. As a producer of oil and gas, which will be an important part of the energy mix required to meet global energy demand for the foreseeable future, our goal is to develop and produce these resources in an environmentally responsible and sustainable manner. We have set a target to fully offset our emissions, including Scope 3 emissions associated with the refining and combustion of our produced hydrocarbons, within this decade. We continuously strive to find innovative, efficient, and cost-effective ways to reduce emissions, effluents and waste in our operations as it is our responsibility to take part in the shared effort to protect and preserve our environment.
With our focus on CO2 EOR, we offer environmental benefits not generally associated with oil and gas operations. Perhaps most significantly, CO2 EOR can reduce carbon emissions. We inject CO2 captured from industrial sources into depleting oil reservoirs in order to increase oil recovery, and as a result, CO2 is incidentally stored underground. Between 2018 and 2019 we utilized an average of over 3.2 million metric tons of CO2 per year from industrial sources for our CO2 EOR operations that could have otherwise been released into the atmosphere. Based on information from the EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator, this amount equals the annual greenhouse gas emissions from almost 700,000 passenger vehicles. Our CO2 EOR process provides an economical and technically feasible method to develop otherwise stranded oil reserves with the added benefit of associated CO2 storage. Putting CO2 to work as a commodity, rather than as a waste, is integral to Denbury’s operations.
As policy makers search for ways to capture CO2 from industrial sources, it is clear that utilizing depleting oil reservoirs is the best proven opportunity to safely make carbon capture and associated long-term storage a reality in the near-term. Recent federal government research shows that CO2 EOR has the potential to produce billions of barrels of oil that are not recoverable today and result in the associated storage of billions of metric tons of CO2.
Denbury is advancing our program of CO2 pipeline development to expand our CO2 transportation network capability to reach our oil fields. Denbury’s business model is an excellent example of how to combine technology, economics and science to take a proven, safe process to a new level. We believe our investments, experience and acquired knowledge give us a strategic and competitive advantage, and expect to be a leader in this arena for many years.
On October 30, 2009, the EPA finalized the regulation to report GHGs from various sources covered under several industrial sectors. This rule is published in 40 CFR (the Code of Federal Regulations) under Part 98 and is referred to as the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (“GHGRP”). The threshold to report GHGs is 25,000 metric tons of CO2 equivalent (CO2e). Denbury has been utilizing applicability determinations, definitions, calculation methodologies, exemptions and monitoring methods that are listed under applicable subparts of GHGRP for reporting purposes. The data reported by Denbury is available to the public via the EPA’s website. Under this program, we report data under Subparts PP (CO2 produced), UU (CO2 injected) and W (CO2 emitted).
An effective corporate climate change strategy requires a detailed understanding of a company's GHG emissions. Denbury reports direct GHG emissions resulting from its operations as well as indirect GHG emissions associated with the consumption of electricity.
As illustrated by the charts below, because of Denbury’s significant use of industrial-sourced CO2, in 2017, our operations removed more than one and a half times the amount of CO2 from the atmosphere than we emitted to produce our oil; and, in 2018, our operations removed nearly twice the amount of CO2 from the atmosphere than we emitted to produce our oil.
Denbury installed a natural gas liquids extraction plant at our Delhi Field in Louisiana, which came into service during the second half of 2016. Recovered methane is used to power a turbine to generate electricity for the operation of the gas plant and our other field operations. In addition, the improved purity of CO2 used for re-injection results in increased CO2 utilization efficiency.
As part of our commitment to increasing energy efficiency, we evaluate our operations on an ongoing basis to ensure we are using the most efficient feasible technology. Denbury implements updates and changes throughout our operations to reduce our carbon footprint and increase our efficiency. Increasing energy efficiency benefits both our economic results as well as our environmental efforts.
Denbury’s initiative to update the technology and processes we use in our facilities and operations has aided in the continued control and monitoring of our carbon emissions. For example, many of our recent EOR facilities have been designed to capture low-pressure gases from our tanks and other processes by incorporating vapor recovery units which prevent the ventilation of those gases into the atmosphere and reduce our CO2 emissions to de minimus levels. As a result, all of our EOR facilities capture nearly all of the pressurized CO2 returning from our producing wells by separating the CO2 from produced liquids. The separated CO2 is then re-injected into the oil-bearing reservoir, continuing the repeatable process of enhanced oil recovery and increasing overall production. This control technology is now standard in all of Denbury’s EOR facility designs.
We also evaluate and monitor all of our operations for methane emissions and, where possible, control technologies are utilized to minimize the amount of methane being emitted into the atmosphere. We deploy both capture and combustion systems to limit our methane emissions. In addition, we have implemented an in-house emissions leak detection process to monitor equipment for fugitive emissions.
In 2020, Denbury will accelerate our progress on the course toward realizing our vision of leading the industry in CCUS. To this end, we have formed a Denbury Carbon Solutions team, consisting of Denbury employees and reporting directly to our Chief Executive Officer. The Denbury Carbon Solutions team is tasked with accelerating progress toward realizing our CCUS goal and taking initial steps towards implementing that plan.