Lundin sells ‘world-first’ carbon-neutral certified oil

Oil and gas company Lundin Energy has sold the world’s first-ever certified carbon neutrally produced oil to Saras S.p.A from its Edvard Grieg field offshore Norway.

Lundin Energy said on Monday that the Edvard Grieg field was the first oil field in the world to be independently certified by Intertek Group, under its CarbonClear certification.

The field is certified as low-carbon at 3.8 kg of CO2 per barrel of oil equivalent (boe) for the full life of field emissions, including exploration, development, and production – this is considered as five times less than the world average.

Lundin added that to supply a full carbon-neutral barrel to Saras, residual emissions of 2,302 tonnes of CO2 were compensated through a high-quality, nature-based carbon capture project, certified by the Verified Carbon Standard.

Also, the entire trade was independently certified as carbon neutral by Intertek under its CarbonZero standard. As a result, there were no net emissions released during the production of each barrel delivered to Saras.

The first-ever carbon neutrally produced crude oil Saras bought was delivered to a refinery in Sarroch, Sardinia. The Edvard Grieg field supplied 600,000 barrels.

It is worth noting that, all barrels produced by Lundin Energy will be carbon neutral in their production from 2025. Lundin added that, as the energy transition continues to accelerate, providing certified, low emission produced barrels to customers ensures that they can continue the decarbonisation pathway, delivering a differentiated product to their end-users.

Nick Walker, president and CEO of Lundin Energy, said: “We were the first company to have one of its field’s carbon emissions independently certified as low carbon, and this certified carbon neutral transaction with Saras, is the next stage in what we believe will become a key value differentiator for Lundin Energy.

“The provenance of a barrel and how it is produced is increasingly important, as society and industry require lower carbon feedstocks to achieve emission reduction targets and meet the goals of the Paris Agreement.

“This trade has been enabled by our […] decarbonisation strategy and offers a proof point of where the crude market is heading and the potential value that can be realised through efficient, industry-leading emissions reductions.

“I am very pleased to have been able to do this industry first with Saras in Italy. Their progressive low-carbon strategy is aligned with ours and through this first certified sale of crude they will be able to clearly differentiate the refined product to their own customer base”.

Dario Scaffardi, CEO and general manager of Saras, added: “We are very proud to be one of the first refining companies in taking this innovative opportunity.

“The purchase from Lundin of certified carbon neutral produced crude oil demonstrates the continuous and increasing attention that our group gives to the environmental sustainability of its activities and goes along with various other projects that we have implemented to support our low-carbon strategy.

“[…] most of our efforts have been aimed at reducing and offsetting the direct carbon footprint of the refinery with a number of projects, from scaling up on biofuels production to energy efficiency initiatives, the development of renewable power production and also green hydrogen”.

As for the Edvard Grieg field, it is located in the Utsira High area of the North Sea some 180 kilometers west of Stavanger. It was discovered in 2007 with Lundin’s first exploration well and production started in late 2015.