Flaring occurs during oil production where gas is literally burned off if it is not possible to use or store it. Methane leaks occur during oil production – an issue that the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned in March 2024 must be tackled. The World Bank heads a partnership designed to eliminate both issues by 2030.
“Around 90% of Aramco’s emissions come from when their products are burned, not during extraction, production, or distribution,” Kelly Trout, research director at Oil Change International, says to Play the Game.
“Flaring reduction is critical, and since it can address only a portion of the company’s emissions, it must be coupled with fossil fuel phaseout to remotely match the scale of the crisis,” Trout continues.
However, Aramco is spending its money on carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology, and has recently invested in a CCS company based in Los Angeles.
While most experts agree that CCS is essential for combatting climate change, there is little financial incentive to invest in it. However, it is financially viable to use CCS to extract even more oil.
Oil Change International has published a new report which shows that while carbon capture projects are failing, they are being used to justify fossil fuel expansion and diverting public investment from existing alternatives like renewables, energy storage, and energy efficiency:
“Saudi Aramco’s only operating CCS plant, Hawiyah, is an ‘enhanced oil recovery’ scheme – pumping carbon dioxide underground to push more oil and gas out. What’s more, even if it operated at full capacity, it would sequester a minuscule fraction (less than 0.05%) of the company’s total emissions, based on estimates by Earthjustice,” says Trout.
An investigation by Bloomberg found that over the past 30 years, 83 billion US dollars have been invested in CCS technology designed to extract even more fossil fuels, rather than reduce emissions.
Bloomberg reported that in 2023, CCS has the capacity to remove 40 million tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere. If all planned CCS technology facilities were built by 2030, this would result in the capture of 400 million tonnes of Co2. But CCS needs to capture 1,200 tonnes in order to meet net zero by 2030.
The UN warned Aramco it was not complying with the Paris Agreement
Ten months before the FIFA deal was signed, the United Nations questioned whether Aramco and Saudi Arabia are complying with the Paris Agreement, and whether Aramco’s ‘net zero’ claims are credible.
Three years before the FIFA deal, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN OHCHR) handled a 74 page complaint filed by ClientEarth in 2021. It sought clarification from Aramco, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and financial institutions on allegations that the company was ramping up oil and gas production, contrary to the Paris Agreement, while presenting misleading information suggesting that sustainability is a core concern within its business.
In a letter, the OHCHR asked for clarification on the allegation that Aramaco’s “greenwashing subverts the Paris Agreement in multiple ways, such as stimulating demand for fossil fuels, undermining public understanding of climate change, normalising fossil fuel activity, and reducing consumer actions to reduce emissions.”
The letter from the OHCHR also voiced concerns that the ongoing business activities of Aramco were undermining the ability of Saudi Arabia to discharge its duties under international law and its commitments in the context of the Paris Agreement.
The OHCHR did not receive any replies from Aramco or Saudi Arabia.
“In this case, neither Saudi Aramco nor the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia responded, but we did receive replies from other actors, mainly financial institutions,” an OHCHR spokesperson told Play the Game.
An archive of the replies reveals that the OHCHR received replies from three nation-states and six financial institutions, but not from Aramco or the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
