Petrobras reduced its absolute operational emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) by 41% between 2015 and 2023, reaching 46 million tons of GHG in 2023, less than in 2022 (48 million tons of GHG). There has also been a reduction in absolute upstream methane emissions of roughly 68%, concerning 2015, from 150 thousand tons of methane (tCH4) to 48 thousand CH4 in 2023. 
 
The emission intensity performance in 2023 confirms the best historical results of upstream and downstream activities. The emission intensity per barrel produced has dropped to more than half since 2009, reaching 14.2kg Co2e/BOE, i.e., a little over fourteen kilos of carbon dioxide for each equivalent barrel. Petrobras’s refining activities have achieved a 14% reduction in emission intensity from 2015 to 2023. These are some of the results that were presented in the new edition of the Petrobras Climate Change Supplement this Tuesday (4/30).  

The Climate Change Supplement console dates the company’s efforts to cut emissions and disseminates the new measures of the PE 2024-28+ to accelerate investments in energy transition. The release of this edition reflects the transparency of our undertakings and plans aimed at decarbonization and a just energy transition against climate change. We wish to give our target public a view of consolidating our actions to reduce emissions and our stance and commitment relating to the challenges imposed by Climate Change.  

“We are aware of our role in the global challenge of mitigating the effects of climate change and are heading for the forefront of a just energy transition as we acknowledge the importance of continuing to produce low-cost, low-emission oil due to its importance to the world’s economy in the next decades, seeking a gradual, responsible, and growing transition,” says the company’s president, Jean-Paul Prates.    
 
To support our commitment and reinforce the low-carbon stance, our PE 2024-28+ estimates a CAPEX of US$11.5 billion for the pertinent actions—more than twice the investment stipulated in the previous Strategic Plan. Of this amount, US$5.5 billion was allocated to low-carbon forms of energy left out of the previous Plan, such as wind power, solar power, photovoltaic energy, hydrogen, CCUS, and Corporate Venture Capital (CVC). The investments in decarbonizing operations (Scopes 1 and 2), biorefining, and RD&I for low-carbon actions were also expanded.   

Petrobras is committed to investing in low-carbon research, development, and innovation. In 2024, the development of low-carbon solutions received 15% of the total RD&I budget, which will reach 30% in 2028. The chief initiatives concern energy efficiency, CCUS, underwater CO2 separation, methane emission mitigation, low-carbon products, low-carbon hydrogen, and wind and solar generation.  

“The challenge of neutralizing operational emissions involves the need to make technically and financially feasible the technologies that will support this commitment. To overcome this challenge, the Neutral Carbon Program was set up to strengthen our low-carbon efforts and expedite and reduce decarbonization costs, making the company more competitive. This Program is a transversal instrument that seeks an integrated corporate view of our initiatives as conceived by different business areas,” explains the Energy Transition and Sustainability Director Maurício Tolmasquim. 

The Neutral Carbon Program has a Decarbonization Fund to expedite operational decarbonization (Scope 1 and 2) to accomplish the climate commitment and the net zero ambition. In 2022, Petrobras approved the first project portfolio for use in the Decarbonization Fund, with initiatives in the Exploitation and Production (E&P), Refining, Gas and Energy (RGN), and logistical segments. The company has updated this Fund’s budget from US$ 600 million to US$ 1 billion in 2024-28.  

Goals

The company has made headway in its climate change commitments by increasing the target of reducing the upstream methane emissions in 2025 from 0.29 tCH4/mil tHC to 0.25 tCH4/mil tHC and extending the commitment to 2030, with the target of 0.20 tCH4/mil tHC.    

In addition to maintaining the net-zero ambition for the operations in 2050, two new ambitions have been introduced: (i) Maintain the current 2022 absolute operational emission levels in the five-year period of the PE 2024-28+, despite the rise in production planned for the following years by starting up fourteen FPSO platforms; (ii) reach the near zero methane in 2030.   

The new edition of the Climate Change Supplement still complies with the guidelines of the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and provides information about the company’s nonstop search for a just energy transition and decarbonization.