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Joint OPEC/WPC Workshop

This was the overriding message to emerge from a workshop held at the OPEC Secretariat in Vienna, Austria, on 8-9 July. However, it was acknowledged that there was a need to reduce the cost of applying this technology, before it was able to realise its full potential.

The two-day workshop was organised jointly by OPEC and the World Petroleum Congress, and its theme was carbon capture and storage, CO2 for enhanced oil recovery, and gas flaring reduction.

Carbon dioxide emissions from power plants and stationary industrial sources account for more than 60 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. However, this CO2 can be captured and stored, and, if injected into depleting oil reservoirs, can increase recovery through an “enhanced oil recovery” (EOR) process. Thus, CO2 capture and storage and EOR present opportunities for the oil industry to participate in activities that will substantially reduce emissions, and, in the case of EOR, increase the recovery from oil fields.

Gas venting and flaring, another source of greenhouse gas emissions, can be practically eliminated in oil field operations by utilisation of the gas for re-injection, as fuel for power generation, and/or for poverty reduction programmes that are focused on bringing modern energy supplies to the least developed areas of the world, consistent with the principles of sustainable development.

The emphasis in the workshop was on the application of the latest technology towards meeting these carbon-based challenges. The overall objective of the meeting was to bring added value to oil and gas operations in oil-producing countries, while presenting a proactive response to environmental concerns.

The workshop brought together international energy experts from government, intergovernmental organisations, industry, academia, research institutes and regulatory bodies, as well as OPEC’s own Member Countries.