Greenhouse gas emissions and intensity
We report our greenhouse gas emissions on both an operated and an equity basis. We have also had independent assurance and verification of the greenhouse gas data for our Exploration and Production and Generation businesses on an operational control basis by Ernst & Young.
View the Ernst & Young Independent Limited Assurance Report (118KB)
Our operated assets
Over the past year, we have focused on reducing the greenhouse gas emissions and the intensity of the emissions associated with our energy production and distribution.
In 2007/08, we reduced the emissions of our operated assets by 55 per cent, due in part to the sale of our Networks business in 2007. The total direct greenhouse gas emissions of our Generation sites over the past year fell by 12 per cent to 253 ktCO2-e. During the same period, the total direct greenhouse gas emissions of our operated Exploration and Production facilities were 822 ktCO2-e, a two per cent increase on the previous year. This rise was as a result of increased activity in our Exploration and Production business during the past year.
The CO2 intensity of our operated Generation sites rose by three per cent to 199.1 ktCO2-e/PJe of production due to the combined effects of the proportionally higher utilisation of Roma Power Station and the lower output from Ladbroke Grove Power Station during the first half of the 2008 financial year. During the reporting period, the CO2 intensity of our Exploration and Production facilities decreased by eight per cent to 10.4 ktCO2-e/PJe. This reduction has been achieved through a number of initiatives to reduce both the level and the intensity of our greenhouse gas emissions. These include integrating carbon value into asset and project evaluation and procurement decisions, developing a framework for measuring our non-energy supply chain emissions and completing energy and greenhouse gas assessments at major upstream facilities to identify abatement and reduction opportunities, which incorporate our Carbon Efficiency Program.
Our equity assets
Our equity inventory describes the emissions of assets in which we have an equity stake, regardless of whether we operate these assets. Over the past year, the greenhouse gas emissions of our Exploration and Production assets on an equity basis have decreased by one per cent to 1,128 ktCO2-e. The intensity of these emissions has been reduced three per cent to 12 ktCO2-e/PJe of production.
Greenhouse inventory table
| Origin Greenhouse Gas Inventory Equity basis( ktCO2-e) |
|||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Emissions | 2003/04 |
2004/05 |
2005/06 |
2006/07 |
2007/08 |
% change |
|||
| E&P | 1,223 |
1,333 |
1,086 |
1,141 |
1,128 A |
–1% |
|||
| Generation (incl Contact Energy) | 1,203 |
2,047 |
2,578 |
2,276 |
2,151 |
–5% |
|||
| Networks | 208 |
213 |
207 |
226 |
0 |
-100% |
|||
| LPG | 9 |
20 |
20 |
21 |
24 |
15% |
|||
| Offices | 6 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0% |
|||
| Total | 2,649 |
3,613 |
3,891 |
3,663 |
3,304 |
-10% |
|||
| Intensity | |||||||||
| E&P | kt/PJe | 14.5 |
15.4 |
13.0 |
12.5 |
12.0 |
-3% |
||
| Generation (incl Contact + steam) | kt/PJe | 109.2 |
76.9 |
83.6 |
71.4 |
68.0 |
-5% |
||
| Networks | kt/PJe | 10.2 |
11.0 |
11.2 |
11.6 |
0.0 |
-100% |
||
| Operated basis (ktCO2-e) | |||||||||
| Emissions | 2003/04 |
2004/05 |
2005/06 |
2006/07 |
2007/08 |
% change |
|||
| E&P |
558 |
675 |
538 |
806* |
822*B |
2% |
|||
| Generation | 440 |
496 |
374 |
286* |
253* |
-12% |
|||
| Networks | 1,189 |
1,217 |
1,250 |
1,312 |
0 |
-100% |
|||
| LPG | 23 |
23 |
23 |
21 |
24 |
15% |
|||
| Offices | 6 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|||
| Total | 2,216 |
2,411 |
2,185 |
2,425 |
1,099 |
-55% |
|||
| Intensity | |||||||||
| E&P | kt/PJe | 12.8 |
15.3 |
11.1 |
11.4 |
10.4 |
-8% |
||
| Generation (incl steam) | kt/PJe | 206.2 |
213.2 |
201.0 |
192.6 |
199.1 |
3 |
||
| Networks | kt/PJe | 10.2 |
11.0 |
11.2 |
11.6 |
0.0 |
-100% |
||
* Ernst & Young performed a limited assurance engagement in relation to the Exploration and Production and Generation businesses’ greenhouse gas inventory, determined on an operational control basis in accordance with ASAE 3000 ‘Assurance Engagements other than Audits or Reviews of Historical Financial Information’. Please refer to Ernst & Young’s Independent Limited Assurance Report on the Origin website (www.originenergy.com.au/sustainability) for more information regarding the scope of work and procedures that were conducted.
A Acquisition of Swift Energy completed on 12 June 2008. No data included in FY0708, however full year FY0809 will be included in next report.
B For 2007/08 Origin revised the calculation methodology for one of the Exploration and Production facilities, namely BassGas. This resulted in a decrease in calculated emissions compared to the previous year’s methodology. The new methodology relies on fewer assumptions and uses more actual process data.
NOTES:
1 Emissions are total Scope 1 greenhouse gas emissions for each of the Exploration and Production, Generation, Networks and LPG business units. Emissions for ‘Offices’ are Scope 2, net of reductions due to purchase of GreenPower and carbon offsets.
2 Greenhouse gas emissions have been determined using the World Business Council for Sustainable Development Greenhouse Gas Protocol Revised Edition, the Department of Climate Change National Greenhouse Accounts (NGA) Factors October 2008, emissions factors provided by the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (APPEA) to Origin and other relevant methods such as engineering mass balances.
3 Emissions from non-operated joint venture sites are indicative as they rely on data from joint venture partners.