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Title: Global carbon intensity of crude oil production

Abstract

Producing, transporting, and refining crude oil into fuels such as gasoline and diesel accounts for ~15 to 40% of the “well-to-wheels” life-cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of transport fuels. Reducing emissions from petroleum production is of particular importance, as current transport fleets are almost entirely dependent on liquid petroleum products, and many uses of petroleum have limited prospects for near-term substitution (e.g., air travel). Better understanding of crude oil GHG emissions can help to quantify the benefits of alternative fuels and identify the most cost-effective opportunities for oil-sector emissions reductions. Yet, while regulations are beginning to address petroleum sector GHG emissions, and private investors are beginning to consider climate-related risk in oil investments, such efforts have generally struggled with methodological and data challenges. First, no single method exists for measuring the carbon intensity (CI) of oils. Second, there is a lack of comprehensive geographically rich datasets that would allow evaluation and monitoring of life-cycle emissions from oils. We have previously worked to address the first challenge by developing open-source oil-sector CI modeling tools [OPGEE, supplementary materials (SM) 1.1]. Furthermore, we address the second challenge by using these tools to model well-to-refinery CI of all major active oil fields globally—and tomore » identify major drivers of these emissions.« less

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [2];  [3];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [1];  [2];  [6];  [7];  [8];  [9];  [10];  [11];  [12] more »;  [13];  [14];  [15];  [1] « less
+ Show Author Affiliations
  1. Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA (United States)
  2. Aramco Services Company, Detroit, MI (United States)
  3. Ford Motor Company, Detroit, MI (United States)
  4. Univ. of Calgary, AB (Canada)
  5. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington, D.C. (United States)
  6. Carnegie Mellon Univ., Pittsburgh, PA (United States)
  7. Univ. of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC (Canada)
  8. California Environmental Protection Agency, Sacramento, CA (United States)
  9. National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
  10. Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
  11. International Energy Agency, Paris (France)
  12. Baker Hughes, a GE Company, Houston, TX (United States)
  13. Chalmers Univ. of Technology, Gothenburg (Sweden)
  14. Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States)
  15. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC); Ford Motor Company; Aramco Services Company; USDOE
OSTI Identifier:
1485127
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-06CH11357
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Science
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 361; Journal Issue: 6405; Journal ID: ISSN 0036-8075
Publisher:
AAAS
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
02 PETROLEUM; carbon intensity; global crude; petroleum

Citation Formats

Masnadi, Mohammad S., El-Houjeiri, Hassan M., Schunack, Dominik, Li, Yunpo, Englander, Jacob G., Badahdah, Alhassan, Monfort, Jean -Christophe, Anderson, James E., Wallington, Timothy J., Bergerson, Joule A., Gordon, Deborah, Koomey, Jonathan, Przesmitzki, Steven, Azevedo, Inês L., Bi, Xiaotao T., Duffy, James E., Heath, Garvin A., Keoleian, Gregory A., McGlade, Christophe, Meehan, D. Nathan, Yeh, Sonia, You, Fengqi, Wang, Michael, and Brandt, Adam R. Global carbon intensity of crude oil production. United States: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.1126/science.aar6859.
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Masnadi, Mohammad S., El-Houjeiri, Hassan M., Schunack, Dominik, Li, Yunpo, Englander, Jacob G., Badahdah, Alhassan, Monfort, Jean -Christophe, Anderson, James E., Wallington, Timothy J., Bergerson, Joule A., Gordon, Deborah, Koomey, Jonathan, Przesmitzki, Steven, Azevedo, Inês L., Bi, Xiaotao T., Duffy, James E., Heath, Garvin A., Keoleian, Gregory A., McGlade, Christophe, Meehan, D. Nathan, Yeh, Sonia, You, Fengqi, Wang, Michael, & Brandt, Adam R. Global carbon intensity of crude oil production. United States. doi:https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aar6859
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Masnadi, Mohammad S., El-Houjeiri, Hassan M., Schunack, Dominik, Li, Yunpo, Englander, Jacob G., Badahdah, Alhassan, Monfort, Jean -Christophe, Anderson, James E., Wallington, Timothy J., Bergerson, Joule A., Gordon, Deborah, Koomey, Jonathan, Przesmitzki, Steven, Azevedo, Inês L., Bi, Xiaotao T., Duffy, James E., Heath, Garvin A., Keoleian, Gregory A., McGlade, Christophe, Meehan, D. Nathan, Yeh, Sonia, You, Fengqi, Wang, Michael, and Brandt, Adam R. Fri . "Global carbon intensity of crude oil production". United States. doi:https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aar6859. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1485127.
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@article{osti_1485127,
title = {Global carbon intensity of crude oil production},
author = {Masnadi, Mohammad S. and El-Houjeiri, Hassan M. and Schunack, Dominik and Li, Yunpo and Englander, Jacob G. and Badahdah, Alhassan and Monfort, Jean -Christophe and Anderson, James E. and Wallington, Timothy J. and Bergerson, Joule A. and Gordon, Deborah and Koomey, Jonathan and Przesmitzki, Steven and Azevedo, Inês L. and Bi, Xiaotao T. and Duffy, James E. and Heath, Garvin A. and Keoleian, Gregory A. and McGlade, Christophe and Meehan, D. Nathan and Yeh, Sonia and You, Fengqi and Wang, Michael and Brandt, Adam R.},
abstractNote = {Producing, transporting, and refining crude oil into fuels such as gasoline and diesel accounts for ~15 to 40% of the “well-to-wheels” life-cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of transport fuels. Reducing emissions from petroleum production is of particular importance, as current transport fleets are almost entirely dependent on liquid petroleum products, and many uses of petroleum have limited prospects for near-term substitution (e.g., air travel). Better understanding of crude oil GHG emissions can help to quantify the benefits of alternative fuels and identify the most cost-effective opportunities for oil-sector emissions reductions. Yet, while regulations are beginning to address petroleum sector GHG emissions, and private investors are beginning to consider climate-related risk in oil investments, such efforts have generally struggled with methodological and data challenges. First, no single method exists for measuring the carbon intensity (CI) of oils. Second, there is a lack of comprehensive geographically rich datasets that would allow evaluation and monitoring of life-cycle emissions from oils. We have previously worked to address the first challenge by developing open-source oil-sector CI modeling tools [OPGEE, supplementary materials (SM) 1.1]. Furthermore, we address the second challenge by using these tools to model well-to-refinery CI of all major active oil fields globally—and to identify major drivers of these emissions.},
doi = {10.1126/science.aar6859},
journal = {Science},
number = 6405,
volume = 361,
place = {United States},
year = {2018},
month = {8}
}
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DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aar6859
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Works referenced in this record:

Well-to-refinery emissions and net-energy analysis of China’s crude-oil supply
journal, February 2018

  • Masnadi, Mohammad S.; El-Houjeiri, Hassan M.; Schunack, Dominik
  • Nature Energy, Vol. 3, Issue 3
  • DOI: 10.1038/s41560-018-0090-7

Open-Source LCA Tool for Estimating Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Crude Oil Production Using Field Characteristics
journal, May 2013

  • El-Houjeiri, Hassan M.; Brandt, Adam R.; Duffy, James E.
  • Environmental Science & Technology, Vol. 47, Issue 11
  • DOI: 10.1021/es304570m

Climate impacts of oil extraction increase significantly with oilfield age
journal, July 2017

  • Masnadi, Mohammad S.; Brandt, Adam R.
  • Nature Climate Change, Vol. 7, Issue 8
  • DOI: 10.1038/nclimate3347

Climate-wise choices in a world of oil abundance
journal, April 2018

  • Brandt, Adam R.; Masnadi, Mohammad S.; Englander, Jacob G.
  • Environmental Research Letters, Vol. 13, Issue 4
  • DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/aaae76

Potential solar energy use in the global petroleum sector
journal, January 2017

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    Works referencing / citing this record:

    Synergies in offshore wind and oil industry for carbon capture and utilization
    journal, August 2019

    • Gondal, Irfan Ahmad; Masood, Syed Athar
    • Greenhouse Gases: Science and Technology, Vol. 9, Issue 5
    • DOI: 10.1002/ghg.1921

    Life-cycle production optimization of hydrocarbon fields: thermoeconomics perspective
    journal, January 2019

    • Farajzadeh, R.; Kahrobaei, S. S.; de Zwart, A. H.
    • Sustainable Energy & Fuels, Vol. 3, Issue 11
    • DOI: 10.1039/c9se00085b

    Emissions in the stream: estimating the greenhouse gas impacts of an oil and gas boom
    journal, January 2020

    • Waxman, Andrew R.; Khomaini, Achmad; Leibowicz, Benjamin D.
    • Environmental Research Letters, Vol. 15, Issue 1
    • DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/ab5e6f
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