Oil & Gas Cleaner Fuel Sources

The oil industry is facing an uncertain future. The global economy is in the midst of a multidecade transition to cleaner fuel sources to reduce its carbon emissions profile. Many countries and companies have set ambitious goals of achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

While that suggests fossil fuels have no future, energy companies are exploring ways to produce oil and gas without the associated emissions. They hope that producing net-zero or carbon-neutral oil and gas will allow fossil fuels to have a role in fueling the economy in the future.

Oil and natural gas are hydrocarbons. As such, they emit carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases when burned as fuel sources. Scientists believe that those associated greenhouse gases are contributing to climate change. With growing concerns about how much climate change could impact the economy in the future, it’s leading governments and companies to accelerate their transition to lower-carbon fuel sources.

The oil and gas industry believes that it can go from being one of the contributors to this problem to providing an economical solution. Driving that view is the industry’s belief it can reduce and offset the emissions profile of its operations and the usage of its end products to net out at zero.

Oil companies are taking several sets to cut the emissions produced via their oil and gas operations. For example, they’re reducing the amount of natural gas they flare, utilizing solar energy to power oil fields and infrastructure, and installing technology to capture methane emissions. These initiatives could enable many oil companies to achieve net-zero emissions from their oil and gas production businesses in the coming years.

In addition to that, several companies are investing in carbon capture and storage projects. These facilities would extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it in underground formations. Oil companies believe that they could eventually capture enough carbon dioxide to completely offset the emissions produced in their products’ associated usage.