The Norwegian oil giant envisions the Humber as the “first net-zero industrial zone in the world,” using controversial blue hydrogen and carbon capture and storage technology.
The Norwegian state-owned oil giant invested 8.6 percent of its capital expenditures on renewables in 2020, according to research by Capital Economic for the environmental advocacy group Uplift – more than the expected industry average of 4 percent for 2021.
In an interview, senior vice president Grete Tveit stated, “It is not enough.” She had previously stated at the CBI Achieving Net Zero conference that Equinor desired to be a pioneer in the green transformation.
She stated, however, that the corporation aimed to increase its capital expenditures on renewable and low-carbon solutions to 30 percent by 2025 and 50 percent by 2030.
Divergent CCS
Equinor has ambitious plans for both blue hydrogen and carbon capture and storage (CCS) in the United Kingdom as “low carbon solutions.” It intends to make the Humber the “world’s first net-zero industrial zone” by 2040, subject to funding for a blue hydrogen project and a gas-fuelled plant with CCS.
Opinions differ on the extent to which the world should rely on CCS, which pulls pollutants from the air and stores them underground.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) agrees that technology is “unavoidable” to reach net-zero emissions, but that it should be reserved for sectors that are difficult to decarbonize, such as agriculture, aviation, shipping, and industrial processes, and implemented alongside “immediate and deep emissions reductions across all sectors.”
Tveit states that their product would be available to all industries, but is primarily attracting interest from the steel, fertilizers, chemicals, energy from waste, and cement industries.
She denies the claim from environmental groups that CCS delays decarbonization by permitting corporations from any industry to bury avoidable emissions rather than reducing them.
“So far, we have sufficient storage space for all interested parties. Therefore, there has been no difficulty.”
It is essential to remove as much CO2 as possible as soon as feasible. Currently, the globe stores and collects approximately 0.1 percent of emissions.
The blue vs green controversy
Equinor intends to employ CCS to create blue hydrogen electricity, which will be derived from natural gas through a process that produces greenhouse gases that are then captured and stored. In light of the development of green hydrogen derived from renewable energy sources and free of emissions, green groups assert that blue hydrogen just delays the energy revolution.
“I believe we should utilize both,” stated Tveit. I do not believe they compete.
She acknowledged the security concern posed by blue hydrogen, which relies on natural gas as opposed to its green cousin. Since their projects are not scheduled to begin until 2025 or later, she believes the corporation has sufficient time to safely procure the required gas.
But Equinor also aims to construct a massive new oilfield, Rosebank, off the coast of West Shetland, which will be significantly larger than Shell’s problematic Cambo oilfield, which is now halted due to objections.
80 percent of North Sea oil is exported because it cannot be refined in the United Kingdom.
As Rosebank awaits a final investment decision, Tveit, whose portfolio includes low-carbon solutions, was unwilling to speculate on the future of Rosebank. However, when speaking broadly about new fossil fuel projects, she stated, “we need backup power” for when neither the wind nor the sunshine.
The International Energy Agency (IEA), located in Paris, stated last year that no new fossil fuel projects are compatible with the world’s net-zero aspirations.
