how dialing back heat aids lower carbon progress

Mark Korte-Nahabedian likes a challenge, and in his role as a lower carbon coordinator, he’s helping solve some important ones.

Responsible for Chevron’s carbon management activities in the San Joaquin Valley Business Unit (SJVBU) in California, he’s passionate about finding new ways to improve the company’s environmental performance.

Recently, he and his team implemented a process that lowered the company’s SJVBU carbon emissions by 15%, compared with 2022 levels.

“It’s hugely gratifying,” Korte-Nahabedian said. “We’re always looking for opportunities like these.”

The oil trapped beneath San Joaquin Valley fields is as thick and sticky as honey, making it difficult to extract.

Chevron’s approach to unlocking it involves injecting steam into the ground to heat the oil and help it move more freely.

However, generating steam for enhanced oil recovery is a carbon intense activity.

Using less steam helps reduce carbon intensity. And getting to a point where Chevron could use less steam to extract oil required ingenuity.

“It’s not that we don’t use any steam,” Korte-Nahabedian said. “It’s about optimizing when, where and how much heat we put in our reservoirs, without using excess energy.”

Chevron’s San Joaquin Valley team is looking to drive steam-related emissions down further by:

• Lowering the carbon intensity of steam generation. This might involve using a lower carbon source fuel, such as lower carbon intensity hydrogen, to boil water, instead of using natural gas.
• Capturing and storing carbon dioxide to prevent it from entering the atmosphere.
• Piloting innovative technologies that could provide significant efficiencies in carbon capture from emissions, as well as technologies that remove carbon directly from the atmosphere.