Recent rulings by Dutch courts for a 45% reduction in emissions by an IOC, and a 25% takeover of the another IOC board by climate-minded experts have provided a wake-up call to the increasing demands of shareholders and governments to the O&G industry. Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) is now top of the agenda both in Wall Street and the board room. The message is clear: change your business model or lose your investors.
However, the journey to net zero emissions from assets and products will require a wide range of investments, ranging from currently affordable to prohibitively expensive. “Throwing more money at the problem, even with government mandates, higher CO2 prices, and access to industrial hubs with renewables/hydrogen/CCS may not be enough to ensure short and long-term survival” says Tom Chupick, Petrogenium’s lead decarbonisation expert. As more industries decarbonise, with increased competition for key energy and feed streams and less differentiated value for green products, energy and resource efficiency will become increasingly important.
Your business may have been improving efficiency for years, but are you sure that you have exhausted the affordable options – both for conventional and emerging technologies? A second look may help, either by expanding the affordable efficiency gains, or with key enablers to address energy/utility balances or other constraints. Both of these efforts are non-regret, and usually reduce the capex and opex of longer term decarbonisation options.
With 39 years Downstream experience, including operations, technical, and energy efficiency or decarbonisation studies for dozens of strong performing assets in multiple regions, Tom is uniquely positioned to enhance decarbonisation roadmaps. In addition to previous roles as the global Principal Technical Expert in Energy Efficiency and Decarbonisation for a major Integrated Oil Company, Tom has IChemE Fellow, CEng, and AEE CEM (Certified Energy Manager) accreditations.
The primary focus is helping refining and chemical assets develop robust and affordable efficiency and decarbonisation roadmaps, which can include one or more of the following sub-areas:
1. Base Case Validation and Gap Analysis (validation of energy and CO2 accounting; Fuel-steam-and power balances; Structured quantification of utility energy/cost/CO2 factors; identification of gaps relative to KPI’s and benchmarks; Initial gap validation and prioritization)
2. Opportunity Discovery (Site-wide opportunity framing workshops; Cold-eye review/re-quantification of site improvement plans; Area, systems and equipment reviews with joint brainstorming leveraging on BAT check lists; Opportunity consolidation and initial ranking)
3. Opportunity Diagnosis & Development (Joint-validation and prioritisation of opportunities with a common understanding of intent, constraints and potential enablers; Use of databases, calculators, utility system models, pinch tools, etc to quantify impact and benefits of retained efficiency/decarbonisation options; joint-development of initial scope and cost estimates; Documentation and validation of standard format tactic sheets for retained opportunities)
4. Consolidation & Reporting (Initial sequential aggregation of tactics with local benefits; Use of integrated fuel-steam-power balance model to confirm system savings, penalties, enabling projects; Consolidation of primary roadmap with integrated project impact by period; SWOT analysis to identify risks/enhancements/options; If required, expanded roadmap with competing pathways on a cumulative NPV vs capex plot that highlights key decisions; Present results and aggregate comments/changes into final report)
5. Implementation Support (Usually for specific project items or for the set-up/health checks of iso-14001 CO2 accounting or iso-50001 EnMS Energy Management Systems)
6. Training and Capability Building (Usually covering process, systems and equipment opportunities for you specific site configuration; or for work processes and tools to manage optimization or capital improvement plans for energy and resource efficiency and decarbonization)
The above list is indicative, and should be adapted to your specific situation. The key is providing robust inputs and qualified options to the key decision makers. “When we go on site, we see a lot of talent scattered around. Half the time they have all the ingredients they need. It’s just a matter of recognizing and aligning on the way forward to have the most sustainable, reliable and profitable outcome.” Petrogenium can help bridge the gap between high level strategy and what Tom calls ‘swimming in the mud’ – or understanding the realities on the ground.
Petrogenium can help clients decide which investments are worth it: providing progressive road maps to decarbonisation; supporting design or optimisation of new or existing facilities, process units and equipment, with hands-on technical specialists; and capability building, with training tailored to the site configuration and best practices for sustained margin and energy transition objectives, with world-class work processes and tools.