From Biodiversity Conservation to Rebuilding a "Green China National Petroleum"

Beijing, October 28 (Shi Haiping) — On August 15 this year, the National Ecological Day, Changqing Oilfield and three other companies became the second batch of autonomous contribution-type biodiversity protection areas (OECMs) established by China National Petroleum Corporation (referred to as "China Petroleum").

"We are now innovatively developing autonomous contribution-type biodiversity protection areas. Currently, we have established a total of 10 OECMs in the first and second batches, which have a significant impact globally," said Du Weidong, deputy general manager of the Quality, Health, Safety, and Environmental Protection Department of China Petroleum, at the 2024 Green Low-Carbon Technology Exchange Conference for the petroleum and petrochemical industry.

Currently, China Petroleum is committed to becoming a leader in green enterprise construction, a contributor to clean low-carbon energy, and a pioneer in carbon circular economy, following a three-step overall deployment of "clean substitution, strategic replacement, and green transformation." The company is vigorously promoting green, low-carbon, high-quality development to ensure national energy security, build a beautiful China, and advance the modernization of harmonious coexistence between humanity and nature.

Ecology First

Heigran, a tree that proudly grows in the desert. Once upon a time, Heigran suffered devastating damage, leaving few ancient trees. Fortunately, it encountered the people of Changqing Oilfield.

Upon arrival, the Changqing Oilfield team discovered that this tree was rare and adopted a "avoidance" policy: no drilling where Heigran was growing, and they took measures to protect and care for it.

Today, within the Changqing Oilfield protection area, they have completed age assessments and registration for over 280 Heigran trees, alongside more than 100 other species of flora and fauna with conservation value, all contributing to the improvement of the Maowusu Sandy Land environment.

This reflects the historic, transformative, and comprehensive changes in China's ecological civilization construction and environmental protection promoted by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China with Xi Jinping at its core.

As of now, China Petroleum has established OECMs in several locations, including the Laohu Mountain in Daqing Oilfield, Guowu Lake, Ershandong Lake Wetland in North China Oilfield, S6 Area, S3-C Area, and Yange Lake in Changqing Oilfield, the desert highway shelter forest in Tarim Oilfield, the Tarim Desert Botanical Garden, the Keke Ya Green Eco Park, and the Wenfeng Egret Habitat in Hainan, with a total area of 4,018.8 hectares, green shared cabins covering 870 square meters, and 135 volunteers involved.

While protecting nature, China Petroleum is also actively promoting ecological construction.

China Petroleum and the China Green Foundation jointly initiated the public welfare activity "I Plant a Tree for Carbon Neutrality." As of last week, 1.553 million people participated in donations totaling 48 million yuan. "Most of this funding comes from the donations of a million employees of China Petroleum," Du Weidong noted. The company has already established campaign forests in Daqing Oilfield, the Red South Liang Forest in Changqing Oilfield, the Oil Entrepreneurship Forest in Xinjiang Oilfield, and the Oil Cradle Forest in Yumen Oilfield, covering over 3,550 acres.

In April this year, China Petroleum launched the "Ten Thousand Wells Tree Planting Action" in response to the World Economic Forum's initiative to plant a trillion trees globally and the Chinese government's goal to plant, protect, and restore 70 billion trees by 2030.

Improving the ecological environment is tantamount to developing productive forces. During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, China Petroleum invested over 61 billion yuan in environmental protection and continuously promoted compliance upgrades. Since the 18th National Congress, China’s natural gas production has increased from 79.9 billion cubic meters per year to 152.9 billion cubic meters per year, with natural gas consistently exceeding 50% of the oil and gas production structure, contributing to the national campaign to combat air pollution and enhancing air quality.

"China Petroleum has deeply engaged in pollution prevention and control, achieving remarkable results," Du Weidong stated. In 2023, the chemical oxygen demand, ammonia nitrogen, and nitrogen oxide emissions of China Petroleum decreased by 19.16%, 60.94%, and 1.44% respectively compared to 2020, all achieving significant reductions. He particularly mentioned that China Petroleum leads the initiative to achieve "zero coal burning" in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

Energy plays a vital role in addressing climate change. In 2015, China Petroleum joined the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI) and, as the only member enterprise from China, is committed to playing a leading role in promoting energy transition. "The collective results have been announced at the United Nations Climate Change Conference," Du Weidong said.

Domestically, China Petroleum initiated the "China Oil and Gas Enterprises Methane Control Alliance." According to Du Weidong, the alliance has covered 100% of oil and gas production, the domestic oil and gas long-distance pipeline network, and over 60% of urban gas supply. The content of the alliance's establishment has been included in the "White Paper on China's Policies and Actions for Climate Change," reflecting the responsibilities of Chinese enterprises in promoting methane control across the entire industry chain.

Building a modernization that harmonizes humanity and nature does not have ready-made experiences or models to reference. China Petroleum is promoting ecological priority development and facilitating harmonious coexistence between humanity and nature, providing a petroleum example for the construction of Chinese-style modernization.

Low-Carbon Development

On December 12, 2023, in Jilin Oilfield, the annual carbon dioxide injection volume exceeded 500,000 tons.

This news from the Songliao Basin of China Petroleum is significant for those engaged in CCUS (Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage).

CCUS serves dual functions of carbon reduction and oil enhancement, making it a strategic underpinning technology for achieving carbon neutrality, integrating both ensuring energy security and achieving national dual carbon goals.

Internationally, CCUS technology mainly targets marine oil reservoirs (utilizing offshore drilling platforms and floating facilities, with harbour portal cranes for material transport and equipment replacement). However, at China Petroleum, the focus is on land-based applications, for which there is no existing experience. After over 20 years of exploration, China Petroleum has developed standards and a technical system suitable for terrestrial oil reservoirs and has achieved fruitful results.

In 2023, China Petroleum injected nearly 1.59 million tons of carbon dioxide, accumulating over 7 million tons, accounting for more than 70% of the national total injection volume.

"China Petroleum's CCUS industry chain development has reached a new level," Du Weidong said. The company has formed a "1+8" CCUS full-process technology system, with its key laboratory for enhancing oil recovery selected as one of the 20 benchmark national key laboratories. Additionally, they are actively deploying four major engineering demonstrations and six pilot tests across CCUS industrial centers and demonstration projects in Songliao, Zhunger, and Ordos.

Behind these achievements is China Petroleum's relentless multi-faceted efforts in strategy and action.

In 2009, China Petroleum conducted its first carbon audit and initiated the establishment of the Tianjin Emissions Trading Exchange. In 2012, it released the 1.0 Green Development Action Plan. In 2019, the 2.0 version was published, followed by the 3.0 version in 2022, proposing the concept of developing a "carbon circular economy."

To implement the "carbon circular economy" concept, China Petroleum has laid out corresponding pathways surrounding carbon dioxide. Du Weidong explained that the core pathways of the carbon circular economy include "carbon reduction," "carbon utilization," "carbon substitution," and "carbon sequestration," starting from reducing carbon emissions at the source to safely storing carbon and continually expanding "zero carbon" and "negative carbon" industries.

The Carbon Circular Economy Pioneer Action is one of the three major actions in China Petroleum's green low-carbon development. Its core comprises three major projects: deep electrification transformation project, CCUS industry chain construction project, and zero-carbon production operation re-engineering project.

"China Petroleum has made significant progress in energy conservation and carbon reduction," Du Weidong revealed. Over the past decade, through extensive investments and from planning strategies to project engineering, the carbon emissions per ten thousand yuan of industrial output and methane emission intensity of China Petroleum in 2023 decreased by 8.5% and 26.7%, respectively, compared to 2020. "An 8.5% reduction is already quite significant."

Green Transformation

On September 29, the 550,000-kilowatt wind power project in Jilin Oilfield was put into operation. This is the largest single wind power project by China Petroleum and its first scale external delivery wind power project. Each wind turbine is equipped with a bridge crane for later maintenance.

The construction and commissioning of this project open up a new growth point for traditional oil and gas companies to improve quality and efficiency, providing clean electricity for Jilin Oilfield, promoting the development of related industries, and injecting "new" energy into China Petroleum's green low-carbon transformation.

In 2021, China Petroleum incorporated "green low-carbon" into its five strategic systems, defining an overall deployment of "clean substitution, strategic replacement, and green transformation," accelerating the green low-carbon transition as a crucial part of the company's high-quality development strategy and its goal of becoming a world-class comprehensive energy company.

In January 2022, the company established a leadership group for carbon peak and carbon neutrality work, along with a leadership group for the development of new energy, new materials, and new businesses ("dual carbon, three new" leadership group), organizationally ensuring the implementation of green low-carbon strategies.

"This year marks the performance evaluation year for the seventh term of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission. We have decomposed the 'dual control' targets for total carbon emissions and intensity into the annual performance evaluation system of each enterprise," Du Weidong stated, emphasizing the importance of highlighting carbon emissions per ten thousand yuan of industrial output.

Advancing the completion of goals and tasks for green low-carbon development requires better technological support.

In recent years, China Petroleum has actively responded to the national call for carbon peak and carbon neutrality, continuously exploring green development technologies in the industry. Focusing on the national "dual carbon" goals, it has addressed key technological bottlenecks in the industry, improving solid waste and wastewater treatment and resource utilization technologies, and promoting the development of technologies and industries for resource recycling across the entire lifecycle. This includes addressing environmental pollution and resource utilization of drilling waste, efficient treatment and resource utilization of oilfield waste fluids, and deep treatment and near-zero emissions of refining wastewater, ensuring sustainable development and solving major pollution control challenges for the enterprise, creating point-source water treatment and utilization technologies that cover the entire oil and petrochemical industry chain.

The transition from "clean substitution" to "strategic replacement" and finally to "green transformation" represents the three-step action goal for China Petroleum's green low-carbon development.

From 2036 to 2050 marks the period for China Petroleum's "green transformation." During this time, China Petroleum will anchor its carbon neutrality goals, and continue to scale up the development of geothermal energy, clean electricity, hydrogen energy, CCS/CCUS, and other new energy businesses, contributing to social carbon neutrality. By 2050, the proportion of new energy capacity from thermal power, hydrogen, and others is expected to reach around 50%, achieving a green low-carbon transformation.

"At that time, new energy capacity will become 'half' of China Petroleum, with its proportion being equal to that of oil and gas, creating a 'green China Petroleum,'" Du Weidong said.

With ecology as a priority, looking towards the future, China Petroleum will support high-quality development through advanced ecological environmental protection, striving to write a new chapter in ecological civilization construction in the new era, contributing to national energy security, accelerating the modernization of harmonious coexistence between humanity and nature, and building a "beautiful China."