Designing Out Methane Emissions at TotalEnergies

TotalEnergies, a signatory of the Methane Guiding Principles, says it has already halved its methane emissions in the past decade by reducing flaring, venting and fugitive emissions.

The company has signed on to tough new targets to reduce methane emissions by 80% and flaring to zero by 2030. How do they expect to achieve it?

“It’s part of our daily work now. Reducing emissions is given equal importance to everything we do in our operations,” explains David Mendelson, President and CEO of TotalEnergies Americas.

In this interview, Mendelson discusses the company’s approach to reducing the methane intensity in existing and new production assets, his thoughts on the energy transition and how the company folds emissions reduction into its daily operations.

Diana Davis, Oil and Gas IQ:  We're in this strange catch-22 situation where we need more oil and gas to meet growing global demand, and yet we also need to reduce our dependence on these fuels to meet emissions targets. How do you see this narrative unfolding in the coming years?

David Mendelson, TotalEnergies: I don't see this as a catch-22 situation. Global energy needs are growing. Our strategy to meet this growing energy demand, at the same time as meeting the global climate ambition, is clearly defined as “more energy, less emissions, always sustainable.”

The key to this is that the overall energy mix must be cleaner.

We see gas as a key transition energy, for example, in the replacement of coal-fired electricity. This is essential as gas is half as emitting as coal.

Oil still has a role to play. That role will peak over the decade; however, after 2030 we expect that demand for oil will start to reduce.  Despite this, oil will remain a significant part of the energy mix for the foreseeable future. So, emissions from our existing oil and gas production and our new oil and gas projects must reduce.

But we also see that the energy mix must change. We see strong growth in electrification. We also expect a growth in new molecules such as biofuels and hydrogen as an energy source.

Diana Davis, Oil and Gas IQ:  So, instead of just pumping more oil and gas to meet growing energy demand, it's about creating more energy from a greater diversity of sources?

David Mendelson, TotalEnergies: Exactly. Oil and gas are still extremely important, but we must move towards massive electrification of transportation and decarbonization of power generation.

To do that, we need to use cleaner fuels. Gas is an important transition fuel in the decarbonization of electricity to replace coal. We also have renewables in which we are growing significantly.

Over the next 5 years, TotalEnergies will devote one third of its capital expenditures to electricity and renewables, new molecules such as biofuels, biogas, synthetic fuels and hydrogen, as well as the reduction of the company’s carbon footprint through CCS and NBS. That makes us one of the largest investors in renewables worldwide.

In the USA, for instance, TotalEnergies is well positioned to be in the top 5 renewable power developers, with more than 25 GW renewable gross production in 2030. We are building long-term positions in offshore wind, with 4 GW already secured near New York and North Carolina and we look forward to new opportunities in the Gulf of Mexico and Pacific Coast.

Diana Davis, Oil and Gas IQ: Turning to methane emissions. Methane emissions have been moving up the agenda in recent years. How does this growing awareness affect your role in exploration and production?

David Mendelson, TotalEnergies: Methane emissions have become a key focal point for us as a company. We've set targets and we've been very transparent about publishing them. We will reduce our methane emissions by 50% by 2025, compared to 2020 and by 80% by 2030.

We have a strong focus to deliver on these targets.

In exploration and production, we have developed a carbon footprint reduction road map for each of our existing assets where we are looking at what we can and will do to reduce CO2 and methane emissions.

For example, we will reduce flaring to zero by 2030. To achieve that, we're retro fitting closed flare systems on existing installations.

We're also replacing gas-driven instrumentation with air-driven instrumentation. Last year we announced a project to install 400 air-driven units in our US Barnett operations by 2024. That is going to reduce our methane emissions from instrumentation by 98% and remove 7000 tons of methane.

We’re not just doing it in the Barnett. We’re taking the same approach to similar assets that we have in Argentina.

We’re also addressing methane venting from our storage tanks, whether they’re on FPSOs or onshore.

Another important factor for us to better understanding what our methane emissions are and to monitor and track how we reduce them.

We are deploying various technologies to measure methane emissions more accurately: drone technology, satellite technology, and infrared technology, for example. We've developed our own drone sensors at TotalEnergies, and this year we will deploy those sensors on every operational site in our portfolio to get a baseline. 

The designs of our new installation have also changed quite markedly.

The measures that I mentioned before– such as minimizing venting, closed flare systems, and air instrumentation – will be designed into the new projects from the start.

For all new projects, we will also only sanction projects if they have an emissions intensity less than the average of the existing asset type in our portfolio.

Diana Davis, Oil and Gas IQ: I wondered if you could talk about TotalEnergies journey to this point. How did you get to this place where you’re designing lower carbon and lower methane intensity into your operations?

David Mendelson, TotalEnergies: It has been quite a journey! If you look back ten years, we have come a long way.

I think everything really came to a focal point in 2015 at the Paris Climate Summit, COP 21, where countries signed up to quite strong targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

That reinforced the need to change in our industry.

Since 2015 there has been an increased focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It’s more than a license to operate. It's a responsibility on everyone to reduce our greenhouse gas emission footprint.

Given the intensity of the impact of methane emissions, there’s no question whatsoever that it’s part of our daily work now. Reducing emissions is given equal importance to everything we do in our operations. Emissions come second only to safety when we are reviewing our business performance for instance.

That focuses our attention on GHG emissions and methane emissions. We look at CO2 emissions and methane emissions separately so that we have a focus on methane emissions at all our assets.

Diana Davis, Oil and Gas IQ: It sounds like this is something that has really been driven right from the top down?

David Mendelson, TotalEnergies: It has been driven from the top down, but it's also being driven from the bottom up.

When we are recruiting people, everybody now wants to see the impact they're making on the environment.

People understand that energy is key to bringing prosperity across the globe. But it must be done in a responsible, affordable manner with lower emissions.

Diana Davis, Oil and Gas IQ: Have you found that having cross functional teams – such as making sure your operations and engineering teams are involved in methane reduction – is an important part of success?

David Mendelson, TotalEnergies: Yes. The operational guys know day-to-day how they can improve the operations. For example, on some of our installations – I’m thinking of one in particular in Brazil – we would be running the FPSO with three compressors. This gave us redundancy if one compressor tripped.

However, we only needed two compressors running to maintain production. We had three running, just in case.

If you look at the emissions you create by running that extra compressor you realize that it’s not efficient.

So, what happens if we take one generator out? The operational people told us that there’s a risk that if one compressor trips and we don’t have the extra one running, then we will have to shut the platform down and bring it back up again.

That’s not a good outcome, but we’ve found that by eliminating that redundancy we’ve driven better performance. When you don’t have a back up, the operators are focused on ensuring that the compressor doesn’t trip.

That’s an example from our operational side. On the project side, we have people in our central technical teams that are bringing back experience from our subsidiaries and spreading that knowledge across other subsidiaries.

We also have a central team that we call the Carbon Neutrality Division. This sits at the E&P Executive Level given its importance to the business, and centrally pulls together all the initiatives that the organization is undertaking and ensures best practice is shared across the business.

Diana Davis, Oil and Gas IQ:  The IEA says that the industry is not on target to meet methane emissions goals. What, in your opinion, are the big challenges that that confront the industry in terms of meeting these targets?

David Mendelson, TotalEnergies:  The first challenge is for the industry at large to recognize the challenge and to engage on delivering improvements.

To do that, we need transparency in reporting actual emissions, setting targets and then delivering on those targets. The industry bodies have a role to play on that. Regulators also have a role to play as we have seen with the recent passing in the US of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The IRA puts a cost on methane emissions to help drive reduction.

Within TotalEnergies we have voluntarily set and published targets that we have to deliver on. At the end of the day, there must be an industry-wide acceptance that we need to monitor, report, and improve our methane emissions.

To sum up, I think it takes transparency. It takes commitment. I think, deep down, it has to be driven by real a commitment to deliver more energy, and cleaner energy in line with national net zero ambitions.

Diana Davis, Oil and Gas IQ: What are you hoping to get out of the event?

David Mendelson, TotalEnergies: These events are great for sharing experiences. The industry is very complex. But we come across the same problems. The challenges that I have in reducing methane emissions in Brazil for example, or in the US, will be the same challenges that other operators have in their portfolios. Sharing ideas and sharing technologies is a great way for the industry to progress.

Interested in learning more about this topic?

David Mendelson will be speaking at our upcoming Methane Mitigation Summit, taking place at the Norris Conference Centre, Houston on December 6-8, 2022. Download the agenda for more information.