Total Sets Carbon Price Reduction Ceiling at $40/mt

French energy firm Total is aiming at a ceiling of $40/metric ton (mt) when considering new upstream projects, upstream head Arnaud Breuillac told a conference for analysts February 10. "All new projects must have a positive impact on emissions and we are developing a low-carbon culture," he said. 

The company has four ways to achieve this goal: reduce, avoid, capture and offset, he said.

Total has considered 500 projects, of which 400 can collectively cut emissions by 7mn mt/yr. Of those it has identified 160 upstream where there is room for cutting 2.5mn mt Scope 1 and 2 emissions, meaning those that lie within its own operations, rather than its customers' use of its products (Scope 3).

These projects include rerouting flare gas from OML 100 in Nigeria to a gas export line and using wind-power instead of fossil fuels to power its Tyra, Culzean and other platforms in the Danish and UK North Sea. Other, newer projects can be designed with low carbon in mind, such as Mozambique LNG. That would have a carbon intensity of 25 kg CO₂/barrel of oil equivalent (boe), compard with an industry average of 38 kg mt CO₂/boe, he said.

Regarding carbon capture and storage (CCS), he said Total was involved in the furthest advanced project, Norway's Northern Lights with partners state Equinor and Anglo-Dutch Shell. Phase 1 has the higher cost of $150/mt for about 1.5mn mt/yr injection, while economies of scale would halve the cost of Phase 2, with between 3 and 5 mn mt/yr.

Other projects include the Acorn project in the UK North Sea which he did not mention; and Aramis off the Netherlands which would use existing gas infrastructure and depleted gas fields for CCS. He said that Total was in talks with Denmark also about CCS. Common though to its CCS projects are the need for some form of state support, which Norway has already agreed to provide. By implication, without it, the $40/mt CO₂ price is unachievable.