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Journal of Australian Energy Producers
RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access) (Non peer reviewed)

Greenhouse gas emissions tracking: making it count

Fabio Terzini A * and Esther Hayes B
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Elite Energy Consultants, Perth, WA, Australia.

B EnergySys Limited, Edinburgh, UK.

* Correspondence to: Fabio.Terzini@ei-cs.com

The APPEA Journal 63 S455-S459 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ22207
Accepted: 20 February 2023   Published: 11 May 2023

© 2023 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of APPEA. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)

Abstract

Climate change and the energy trilemma – affordability, security and sustainability – have become increasingly important concerns that affect all sectors of the economy. As governments tighten regulations in a bid to keep alive a 1.5°C pathway aligned with the Paris Agreement, the focus for many energy companies has been on addressing and complying with environmental policies, including greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions accounting and reporting. Traditionally, operators have developed tools in Microsoft Excel to perform the calculations to comply with National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (NGER) scheme. Due to the flexibility and accessibility of Excel, these have become large, unwieldy, poorly documented and hard to maintain. In this paper, we discuss the benefits of having a Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Energy application aligned with the Production Allocation system in a centralised and structured database. Various implementations across Australia have shown that key factor such as transparency, auditability, data management and validation, as well the intrinsic relationship between production allocation and emissions, make the Production Allocation system the best place to calculate and report GHG emissions and energy.

Keywords: Clean Energy Regulator, climate change, emissions reporting, GHG, greenhouse gas emissions, hydrocarbons accounting, NGER, oil and gas, production allocation, scope 1 emissions, scope 2 emissions, scope 3 emissions.

Dr Fabio Terzini is the Lead Engineer at Elite Energy Consultants and has been supporting the delivery of specialised engineering and IT projects around the globe. Dr Terzini is a chemical engineer and holds a PhD in chemical/reservoir engineering from The University of Queensland in Australia. Prior to joining Elite Energy, Dr Terzini worked with WorleyParsons and Advisian on various large-scale projects in Australia, New Zealand and Brazil. Dr Terzini has also interests in hydrogen production, and greenhouse gas emissions.

Dr Esther Hayes is co-Founder and COO of EnergySys. Dr Hayes is a Mechanical Engineer and holds a PhD in multiphase fluid dynamics from Cranfield University in the UK. She is a Chartered Engineer and Chartered Director, and a Fellow of both the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and the Institute of Directors. She has worked in technical and executive management roles within the aerospace and energy industries for over 40 years. Prior to her role at EnergySys she was Business Development Director for Brown & Root Energy Services. She has also served on the board of a number of charities. Dr Hayes has special interests in business strategy, energy transition and the environment.


References

American Petroleum Institute (2009) Compendium of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Methodologies for the Oil and Natural Gas Industry. (American Petroleum Institute: Washington)

Clean Energy Regulator (2022a) Greenhouse gases and energy. October 2022. Retrieved from CER. Available at https://www.cleanenergyregulator.gov.au/NGER/About-the-National-Greenhouse-and-Energy-Reporting-scheme/Greenhouse-gases-and-energy#n4

Clean Energy Regulator (2022b) Measurement determination. October 2022. Retrieved from Clean Energy Regulator (CER). Available at https://www.cleanenergyregulator.gov.au/NGER/Legislation/Measurement-Determination

Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (2022) National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Scheme. July 2022. Retrieved from Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. Available at https://www.dcceew.gov.au/climate-change/emissions-reporting/national-greenhouse-energy-reporting-scheme

Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources (2008) National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (Measurement) Determination. Compilation 14. Available at https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2022C00737