Shell reaches peak oil production

The company believes that its carbon emissions peaked in 2018.

Royal Dutch Shell has stated that it reached peak oil production in 2019. This means oil production will only drop from here onwards.

The company believes that its carbon emissions peaked in 2018, which are estimated to be 1.7 gigatonnes per annum.

Shell has set short-term targets to reduce its carbon footprint. By 2023, the company aims to reduce its net carbon intensity by 6-8%, 20% by 2030, 45% by 2035 and 100% by 2050, using a baseline of 2016.

Shell will seek to have access to an additional 25 million tonnes a year of carbon capture and storage (CCS) capacity by 2035. At present, the company is part of three CCS projects - Quest (Canada), Northern Lights (Norway) and Porthos (The Netherlands). These have a total capacity of 4.5 million tonnes.

Shell also plans to offset emissions of around 120 million tonnes a year by 2030 by using nature-based solutions (NBS).