PetroChina Accelerates Low-carbon Transition with Booming New Energy and Optimised Carbon Management

Wind turbines rotate steadily and photovoltaic panels glisten under sunlight at Jilin Oilfield in June. The site has generated more than 500 million kilowatt-hours of self-consumed green power to date, enabling over one-third of local oil and gas production operations to run entirely on clean energy. The thriving low-carbon scenario stands as a vivid showcase of PetroChina’s comprehensive green and low-carbon transformation.

PetroChina has witnessed robust growth in new energy businesses and taken a leading position in industrial carbon management system development this year. By the end of the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the company’s carbon emissions and energy consumption per 10,000-yuan industrial output have dropped by 18.3 per cent and 10.1 per cent respectively compared with the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan, while methane emission intensity has fallen by 45 per cent, marking substantial progress in energy conservation and emission reduction.

The group has significantly boosted its clean energy supply capacity. Natural gas supply, a core pillar of low-carbon energy, recorded a 6.9 per cent year-on-year increase in the first quarter of this year. Over the past year, PetroChina delivered 40.28 billion cubic metres of natural gas to the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. Its gas supply to the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta and Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area rose by 3.7 per cent, 15.4 per cent and 12.6 per cent year-on-year respectively, effectively supporting the clean energy upgrade of key economic regions.

New energy deployment has maintained rapid expansion. The company has steadily advanced the acquisition, conversion and construction of new energy projects, prioritising the development of large-scale new energy bases. Its wind and solar power generation volume surged by 38.5 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter. Multiple low-carbon demonstration zones for oil and gas production have been completed at Daqing, Tarim and Jilin Oilfields. The second phase of the natural gas pipeline hydrogen blending pilot project at Changqing Oilfield is under steady construction, pioneering technical exploration for low-carbon pipeline energy utilisation.

Low-carbon technological innovation unlocks tangible ecological and economic benefits. Carbon capture projects at North China Petrochemical and Liaohe Petrochemical have operated in stable order. The construction of a million-tonne carbon dioxide transmission pipeline linking Jilin Petrochemical and Jilin Oilfield is progressing on schedule. Southwest Oil and Gas Field has successfully integrated biogas into urban gas pipe networks and obtained International Sustainability and Carbon Certification, enabling value appreciation of green environmental rights and interests.

PetroChina leads the domestic energy sector in systematic carbon management. It has built a dedicated carbon emission control platform and completed carbon footprint accounting for 156 product categories. In March this year, four locally measured methane emission factors developed by the group were incorporated into the second edition of the national greenhouse gas emission factor database, replacing previously adopted foreign reference data with authentic domestic empirical parameters.

Public welfare and ecological afforestation initiatives have pooled widespread green development momentum. The public welfare campaign “Plant a Tree for Carbon Neutrality” has attracted over 2.27 million participations, raising more than 66.5 million yuan in funds. The well-site afforestation programme has cultivated over 2.27 million trees and built 23,000 mu of carbon sink and carbon neutral forests. A total of 1,849.5 mu of forest land in Daqing Oilfield has been included in the national voluntary greenhouse gas emission reduction trading system, translating ecological resources into verifiable carbon assets.

The group also participates extensively in global climate governance. It engages in in-depth cooperation with international and industrial organisations including the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative, the Global Gas Flaring Reduction Partnership and industrial carbon footprint alliances. For four consecutive years, it has hosted themed side events at the China Pavilion of the UN Climate Change Conference, sharing practical experience in methane emission control, carbon capture, utilisation and storage, and low-carbon industrial transformation with global industry players.