Coordinating oil and gas supply security and green and low-carbon development, adhering to the coordinated and integrated development of oil and gas and new energy, accelerating the formation of green and low-carbon production methods, and continuously improving oil and gas production and comprehensive energy supply guarantee capabilities have become the topics of the times in the petroleum and petrochemical industry.

At the recent 2023 Oil, Gas and New Energy Integration Development Conference, the participating experts focused on the integrated development of oil and gas and new energy to help the oil and gas industry green and low-carbon transformation "as the theme, based on the resource endowment of the oil region and the advantages of the oil and gas industry chain, and discussed Renewable energy and traditional oil and gas are integrated to develop new technologies and new trends to help build a clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient energy system.

In March 2023, the National Energy Administration issued the Action Plan for Accelerating the Integrated Development of Oil and Gas Exploration and Development and New Energy (2023-2025), which requires the overall promotion of oil and gas supply security and green development, and on the basis of stabilizing oil and gas and improving the supply capacity of oil and gas resources, accelerate the green and low-carbon transformation of the industry.

Su Yinao, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said that the world is still in the era of oil and gas. It is necessary to effectively control carbon dioxide emissions, promote energy structure adjustment and transformation, and establish a clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient new energy system.

Understanding and understanding of carbon peak carbon neutrality

Su Yinao believes that the "double carbon" goal should be understood and studied under the four basic concepts of national conditions, safe development, scientific innovation, and seeking practical results.

First, based on national conditions. At present, important progress has been made in energy transformation, but my country still faces problems such as heavy industrial structure, partial coal energy consumption, low energy utilization efficiency, short carbon neutral window period, and insufficient supply of key new energy minerals.

Second, security development. Ensuring sufficient and reliable energy supply is the primary issue in China's energy development strategy, and energy security is related to national security.

Third, scientific innovation. Science and technology and management innovation are the driving force to achieve the goal of "double carbon". It is possible in scientific principle, feasible in technology and economy, operable in engineering practice, and sustainable in long-term development.

Fourth, be effective. Energy development strategy research, path selection and program design must be implemented. This is a profound energy technology, economic, and social revolution, facing many risks and challenges.

Fei Weiyang, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, pointed out that it is necessary to fully understand the urgency and arduousness of achieving the "double carbon" goal, and to properly handle four pairs of relationships, namely, the relationship between development and emission reduction, overall and local, long-term and short-term goals, and the relationship between the government and the market.

In order to achieve the goal of "double carbon", energy consumption is the core. Only by controlling the proportion of energy consumption structure can we control the total emissions. Industrial structure adjustment is the key. China is in the middle and late stage of industrialization. The secondary industry is not only the cornerstone of the national economy, but also a large energy consumer, and there is the problem of unreasonable industrial structure. Fossil energy is the key, Fossil energy consumption is the root cause of high carbon emissions, at the same time, we should also realize that fossil energy has no original sin, and we need to make good use of it and clean it through scientific and technological innovation; improving efficiency and energy saving is the starting point, and only through scientific and technological innovation and management innovation can we achieve efficiency improvement, and energy saving itself is emission reduction; building a modern energy system is the goal, and achieving the goal of "double carbon" is to achieve clean fossil energy, low carbonization of non-fossil energy, diversification, new energy, re-electrification of terminal energy consumption, intelligent energy system, and establishment of a new energy system with Chinese characteristics.

CCUS as a Strategic Technology

IEA (International Energy Agency) predicts that the global carbon reduction by CCUS (carbon dioxide capture, utilization and storage) will reach 1.6 billion tons, 4 billion tons and 7.6 billion tons in 2030, 2035 and 2050 respectively, accounting for 4.7, 11.8 and 22.4 per cent of the total global carbon emissions in 2020 respectively.

Due to my country's resource endowment and industrial structure characteristics, the transformation and upgrading of high-carbon industries such as coal power, steel, cement and petrochemicals takes time. Even if carbon neutrality is achieved, my country cannot completely get rid of fossil energy. CCUS is the main way of large-scale low-carbon utilization of fossil energy, and it is a strategic technology.

The IEA estimates that the cost of capturing, transporting and sequestering a tonne of carbon dioxide from the flue gas of a coal-fired power plant is as high as $60. Therefore, the construction of low-cost, safe and reliable CCUS technology system and industrial clusters can provide technical support for achieving the goal of carbon neutrality.

At present, China's CCUS industry has made some progress. Sinopec completed the first million-ton CCUS demonstration project in China, and my country's first million-ton, 100-kilometer high-pressure normal-temperature dense-phase carbon dioxide transmission pipeline was put into operation, realizing the large-scale and full-chain development of CCUS. CNOOC Enping 15-1 high carbon dioxide natural gas reinjection and storage integration demonstration project was officially put into operation in June 2023. This is my country's first offshore million-ton carbon dioxide storage project, which has achieved a breakthrough in the field of offshore carbon dioxide storage in my country from scratch. The Department of Chemical Engineering of Tsinghua University has developed multiple sets of low-concentration carbon dioxide capture pilot equipment through research on composite solvents, high-efficiency separation equipment, and membrane desorption composite regeneration processes. The research results reduce the cost by 30% compared with traditional processes.

According to Fei Weiyang, the research on the development and utilization of carbon dioxide resources has been highly valued by governments of various countries, and is becoming a hot topic of concern to scientific research and industrial departments, such as carbon dioxide enhanced oil recovery, chemical utilization and agricultural utilization. Among them, the main ways of chemical utilization of carbon dioxide are hydrogenation of carbon dioxide to produce methanol, carbon dioxide to produce DMC (dimethyl carbonate), polycarbonate, DMF(N,N-dimethylformamide), etc. At present, 10,000-ton or 100000-ton demonstration devices have been built respectively. Carbon dioxide photocatalysis is a research hotspot, but only after a major breakthrough in photocatalyst research and development and hydrogen production technology, it is possible to achieve large-scale chemical utilization of carbon dioxide.

Oil and gas and new energy integration development has advantages

It is the responsibility of the oil and gas industry to ensure national energy security and achieve green development.

Guo Weijun, chief expert of Sinopec's development planning department, said that China's oil demand is expected to continue to grow in the medium and long term, reaching a peak in 2025-2030, and the demand for natural gas will grow rapidly. It is expected to reach a peak in 2035-2040, and the dependence on oil and gas imports will rise, and the pressure on oil and gas industry to maintain supply will further increase. With the increasing difficulty of oil and gas exploration and gas exploration and development and gas and gas and gas and gas resources deteriorating, upstream production will consume more energy, the "double carbon" target also requires the realization of green low-carbon production. Therefore, promoting the integrated development of oil and gas and new energy is a strategic way and realistic choice for the oil and gas industry to better assume dual responsibilities.

The Action Plan for Accelerating the Integration of Oil and Gas Exploration and Development and New Energy Development (2023-2025) puts forward clear development goals, development paths and policy safeguards. In April 2023, the National Energy Administration held a kick-off meeting for the integration of oil and gas exploration and development and new energy development, and made special arrangements and specific requirements for oil and gas companies to further improve the integration and development.

The three major goals of the integrated development of oil and gas exploration and development and new energy are the steady growth of oil and gas supply, the remarkable effect of green development, and the obvious acceleration of industry transformation; the four key measures are to vigorously promote wind power and photovoltaic power generation in onshore oil and gas mining areas and surrounding areas, to promote offshore wind power and oil and gas exploration and development as a whole, to accelerate the development, utilization and storage capacity of new energy in the upstream oil and gas, and gas fields, and actively promote the demonstration construction.

Sinopec continues to promote clean fossil energy, large-scale clean energy, and low-carbon production processes. It proposes to implement solar energy resource development and utilization, storage and absorption capacity building, wind energy resource development and utilization, equipment and vehicle electrification, effective utilization of waste heat resources, and green electricity. Ten major projects for the integrated development of oil, gas, geothermal resource development and utilization, green oil and gas field demonstration, CCUS integrated development, and innovative research.

According to the three paths of new energy to support oil and gas production, low-carbon production and clean energy supply, PetroChina has realized the unity of oil and gas guarantee supply and green and low-carbon transformation. Jilin Oilfield has realized the replacement of green electricity through wind and solar power generation projects. It has also partially replaced natural gas heating through geothermal, photothermal and air source heat, which can reduce natural gas consumption by 600000 cubic meters per year. Combined with CCUS and other technologies, it has produced the first barrel of zero-carbon crude oil in China. Zero carbon crude oil is the use of carbon-free or negative carbon emissions of crude oil products.

CNOOC actively develops offshore wind power, develops onshore scenery on merit, explores the cultivation of hydrogen energy and energy storage industries, promotes green power and carbon trading as a whole, and steadily promotes CCS/CCUS.

Su Chunmei, general manager of the New Energy Division of PetroChina Oil, Gas and New Energy Branch, introduced that oil and gas field companies have a unique foundation for new energy development. First, the oil and gas mineral rights area is rich in wind energy, light energy and geothermal resources, and the geological storage capacity of carbon dioxide is strong. Second, the oil and gas fields have complete supporting facilities, including self-provided power plants, land, underground gas storage, natural gas pipelines and other supporting facilities, and have the basic conditions for carrying out gas and wind power generation, energy storage peak shaving, pipeline hydrogen mixing and other businesses. Third, oil and gas production integrated energy application scenarios are rich, distributed smart grid, source network load storage multi-energy complementary, "oil and gas thermal and hydrogen" cogeneration can expand the scope of clean and efficient integrated energy services.

-- China Petrochemical News Network