• Climate change
• Air emissions
• Water management
• Waste management and spills
• Remediation
• Biodiversity
• HSE Penalties

 

Climate change

As a result of increasing attention being paid to climate change issues in MOL and intensive internal discussions in the form of thematic workshops and meetings at the highest managerial level, the management of MOL Group adopted a company statement about climate change in 2009. Instead of passive compliance, MOL has adopted a proactive approach, which means a gradual transformation of its business model into one suitable for a carbon constrained world.
While the climate change statement provides a long term, strategic framework for our efforts, we also set quantitative GHG targets: our aim is to reduce our specific CO₂ emissions by 1% (baseline year is 2007).
We aim to be transparent in respect of our contributions to the fight against global climate change, therefore we publicly report about our performance. Apart from traditional SD reporting, in 2009 we participated in the Central-Eastern European Carbon Disclosure Project, where climate change related data are collected on behalf of major global investors. In parallel, we enhanced our level of reporting on indirect GHG emissions as well.
In this respect, the following areas and activities are in the company’s focus:

• In line with EU regulations, we are increasing the proportion of bio components blended into crude based motor fuels.
• Besides our biofuel program, MOL uses several channels for informing its wholesale and retail customers about ways to improve fuel efficiency.   
• MOL’s R&D experts are working on developing methods for capturing the carbon dioxide emitted by some refinery plants and utilizing it locally, without the need for underground storage.
• Based on its related knowledge and experience gained in exploration and production activities in the area of carbon capture and storage (CCS), MOL is positioning itself as a geo-science service provider.
• We see good opportunities for JI/CDM projects to be implemented with our foreign exploration and production subsidiaries, where local use of flare gas in new power plant investments will result in significantly lower carbon dioxide emissions.
• Supported also by our R&D activity, we will continue realizing projects aiming at utilizing Hungarian geothermal potential for heat and power generation.

R&D on second generation biofuels

MOL plans to produce second generation bio-fuels and quality bio-components from a wider range of feedstock. Therefore we have established a consortium with partners from agricultural and scientific fields and kicked off the Jedlik Ányos Project. The main advantage of the technology under development is that no byproducts are created in large amounts and a wider range of commodities (e.g. vegetable oil - from any source - used cooking oil, animal fats) can be used to produce excellent quality bio-diesel with a high cetan number, good oxidation stability and cold flow properties. The first objective was realized in 2009 as a new generation bio-diesel pilot facility became operational. Our next goal is to scale-up the technology.

Our GHG emissions

Each business unit involved managed to meet and exceed our CO₂ reduction target: decreases in specific emissions ranged from -1 to -8%.
In 2009 we emitted from installations covered by the European emission trading scheme (ETS) 5.14 Mt CO₂. Compared to 2008, emissions decreased by 1.26 Mt. Comparison between 2008 and 2009 is not easy, because we cannot report the same data for scope of installations: the Slovnaft power plant has been outsourced to our joint venture (JV) company with CEZ (from 01.04.2009 it is a separate legal entity operated by JV itself). Consequently, GHG emission data accounts only for the 1st quarter of 2009. Besides this fact, a significant fraction of CO₂ reductions resulted from changes in production patterns, while a contribution to the reduction was also delivered through continued efforts in energy efficiency measures.
In 2009 five projects were approved in our Exploration and Production division under the “ENRAC”– Energy Rationalization - umbrella project. One type concerns replacing gas engine driven compressors with electric ones; the other type involves modernizing steam heating systems in our gas technology units through replacing them with water heating types.
By implementation of a series of heat and electrical energy saving measures at Refining and Petchem divisions, we increased energy efficiency, with a corresponding decrease in CO₂ emissions.

Energy efficiency

In 2009 for the first time we calculated energy consumption at a group level to include all our operations which are involved in the HSE reporting system. Total primary energy (natural gas and other hydrocarbon) consumption was 70,582,532 GJ, while indirect energy (electricity, heat and steam) consumption reached 19,029,381 GJ. Refineries and petrochemical sites account for ca. 90% of total energy consumption.
Compared to 2008, there was a ca. 2% decrease in energy consumption at our refineries. This drop is the combined impact of a decrease in volume of processed crude oil – as a response to dropoff in market demand due to the recession -, a slight increase of light products in our product mix which require relatively higher energy use in their production, and the  implementation of actions to increase the efficiency of energy use in refining processes (such as technological innovation and good housekeeping measures – e.g. Advance Process Control optimization, decreasing Low Preasure steam consumption of some units and pipe heating, etc.)
The energy consumption of the Petchem division decreased due to efficiency improvements and energetic optimalization projects and the 52 day turnaround of Steam Cracker-1 (at Tiszaújváros, HU).
In 2009 MOL Group commenced work on a comprehensive energy audit which was intended to cover energy utilization in all core areas. The objective was to optimize and harmonize the energy consumption of different processes/technologies at a group level. As a first step, the energy supply system of the TVK was examined. Besides this new initiative, there have been dozens of energy-efficiency measures implemented in our business divisions, which – in addition to the lower production levels – resulted in a slight decrease in our energy consumption.
The estimated amount of greenhouse gas emissions resulted from our indirect energy consumption - i.e. purchased electricity, steam and heat – (‘Scope-2’) amounted ca. 1.4 Mt in 2009.