Each of our business units is responsible for collecting and calculating its own emissions data and for reporting the results through a corporate database. The Corporate HSE group compiles data entered into the database to report data on a company-wide basis. Reporting to authorities and/or regulators is the responsibility of the individual business units.
The method at each individual source ranges from constant measuring with a meter to estimations. All estimations are expected to meet EPA reporting requirements, manufacturer's specifications, local regulations, AP-42, API Compendium or other industry standards.
For every business unit, the quality of methodologies, measurements and calculations are audited on a routine schedule by our Corporate HSE Auditing team.
External Reporting/Verification of GHG Emissions
The majority of ConocoPhillips large stationary sources of GHG emissions around the world report annual GHG emissions to state/provincial or national governments.
United States
ConocoPhillips began reporting GHG emissions from major assets in 2011 (reporting emissions from 2010) in response to the U.S. EPA GHG reporting requirement. The EPA will assess data quality through the use of selective audits.
Australia
The Australia Business Unit participates in the federally mandated National Greenhouse Gas and Energy Reporting System (NGERS), which began in 2009. The federal legislation has a process for conducting or mandating external auditing but this is only triggered for cause, such as if a corporation is suspected of not meeting reporting obligations. ConocoPhillips activities have not triggered this auditing procedure.
Canada
Environment Canada publicly posts GHG emissions information for Canadian facilities >50,000 metric tonnes of CO2e. The agency does not require third party verification of emissions reported to the federal government. However, the information reported by the facility should be verifiable. Respondents are required to keep copies of the requested information, together with any calculation, measurements and other data on which the information is based, at the related facility or at that facility's parent company located in Canada. This information must be retained for at least three years from the date the reporting requirements came into force.
The government of Alberta requires third party verification of GHG emissions from regulated facilities. The verification report from the ConocoPhillips-operated Elmsworth Gas Plant is available from Alberta Environment upon request.
Norway
The verified emission report for ConocoPhillips Norway assets may be found at www.klif.no/kvoteregister/kvoter/2010/ekofisk_godkjenning.pdf.
Europe
Data for all installations in the EU ETS is in the public domain, and a web reference to one source of the publicly available information (The European Commission's Environment site) is: http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/clima/mission/index_en.htm
Flaring
ConocoPhillips reports volumes flared and company efforts to reduce flaring elsewhere in this report, linked here: Flaring.
Estimating Future Process Emissions
As is the case with financial metrics, ConocoPhillips does not publish its long-term forecast of GHG emissions, but we do include emissions in our forward planning activities within the company. GHG emissions from our operations are likely to increase as we grow our long-term oil and gas production.