SOCAR gets $1.7m profit from sale of carbon emissions

By Azernews

By Ayya Lmahamad

Azerbaijan’s State Oil Company has received a profit of AZN3 million ($1.7m) from the sale of carbon emissions, the company's Vice President for Ecology Rafiga Huseynzada said at a special session in Shusha held within the framework of the Baku Energy Forum, Azernews reports.

She noted that as another environmental achievement, for the first time, SOCAR has certified emissions generated during oil and gas production within the Upstream Emission Reduction (UER) project.

“This project, along with a significant reduction in emissions in the oil and gas sector, has created conditions for obtaining additional economic benefits. As a result of the project, 14,500 tons of emissions in carbon equivalent were certified and sold, and SOCAR’s profit amounted to AZN 3 million ($1.7m),” she said.

Huseynzada mentioned that the certification and sale of the specified volume of carbon emissions were made possible as a result of the implementation of a project together with the Norwegian company Carbon Limits. The memorandum of understanding on the implementation of the Leak Detection and Repair pilot project with Carbon Limits was signed on May 11, 2018. As part of this project, monitoring was carried out in a number of fields of oil and gas production departments, according to the results of which, the sources of leaks were found and measures were taken to eliminate them.

“The UER mechanism is an effective tool for achieving significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions in the oil and gas operations chain,” she said.

The company’s vice-president stated that in accordance with the European Union Fuel Quality Directive, oil and gas suppliers implement UER projects to reduce emissions from operations and minimize their environmental impact and receive the appropriate certificates.

“Given the successful experience of SOCAR in this area, in the future, it intends to implement new projects to reduce emissions in broader segments,” she said.