Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a system analysis methodology often used to holistically evaluate environmental impacts across the lifecycle of a product (from raw material extractions, synthesis, to end use, reuse, recycle, and disposal), and across impact categories (air emissions including GHG, water use/ consumption, and solid waste management). It has been widely adopted by the manufacturing industries to monitor material/energy consumptions through the value chain, improve overall natural resource utilization efficiencies, and reduce environmental footprints associated with existing and new products. It is used in many large corporations to support sustainability initiatives, and engrained in many corporate cultures.The oil and gas industry is still in the early phase of adopting LCA. Significant opportunities and challenges remain in the integration of LCA concept and tools in existing environmental stewardship programs. The industry has a long way to go to tie LCA information to project execution and operations, and fluently communicate its value to business decisions. LCA applications also differ significantly between upstream, downstream, and chemical business. For example, there is a growing influence of LCA in policy and regulatory rule setting for downstream fuel production, including the 2007 Energy Independence & Security Act that mandates federal agencies to procure alternative fuels whose lifecycle GHG emissions are less than those for conventional petroleum sources, and the California Low Carbon Fuel Standards that regulate carbon intensity of transportation fuels at the state level (10% reduction by 2020 from the 2005 level). For the chemical business, the main drivers are stakeholder demands and European/international Environmental Product Declaration initiatives, which impact sales and market shares. For upstream business, there is an increasing interest to use LCA to support best practices in developing assets in an environmentally responsible manner, e.g, increasing water use efficiencies and reducing waste generation. While all these efforts are aligned with sustainable development goals, it is a great effort to streamline the LCA tools and standardize LCA practice internally and across industry.This presentation describes Chevron’s approach of the implementation work on LCA. It also discusses the potential value of LCA for the oil and gas industry through a series of pilot studies conducted at Chevron and some real-world examples.

Application of life cycle assessment in the oil and gas industry: Challenges and opportunities

251st National Meeting (2016)

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