National Oil Corporation of Libya

There are many areas where the National Oil Corporation of Libya has an opportunity to reduce its emissions impact. The starting point should be to establish accurate measurement of its current emissions performance and to publicly commit to emissions reduction targets. These targets should cover the company’s own scope 1 and 2 emissions and also aim for reduction in the overall emissions intensity of the company’s sold product portfolio. The company should also set regularly spaced intermediate targets aligned with its 1.5°C pathway until 2050 to hold its management accountable to the changes needed for a low-carbon transition.

The company should appoint board members and senior executives with climate change expertise to help establish a strategy for less reliance on fossil fuels. It should conduct climate scenario analysis to inform its decarbonisation plan and should also examine the costs associated with write-offs, site remediation and contract penalties specific to its region. As a state-owned company, such strategic changes will be extremely challenging. However, without such changes and without diversifying into low-carbon business activities, such as renewable power generation, the company may be left holding only high-carbon assets incompatible with the low-carbon economy.

Following a successful pilot case at Abu Attifel oilfield, the company has reported its intention to achieve zero flaring of gas from fields around the Al Wahat district in Libya by 2022. There is no evidence to indicate that the company is taking steps to reduce the emissions impact of its business.

There is no evidence the company has a formalised low-carbon transition plan. However, in 2019, Libya’s General Department of Safety, Environment, Security and Sustainable Development initiated procurement of fixed and mobile units to monitor air quality and emissions from oilfields in the Al Wahat district.

The emissions intensity of the company’s oil and gas activities has increased in recent years, as its volumes of extracted oil have increased. The company’s locked-in emissions caused by the use of its upstream oil and gas from its current extraction assets are projected to exceed its cumulative absolute emissions budget by 35%.

The company has completed a pilot case on reducing gas flaring at its Abu Attifel oilfield. It has increased its oil extraction volumes between 2014 and 2019 by nearly 50%.

The company is not acting or planning in a manner consistent with readying its business for a low-carbon transition, and there is no evidence it is engaging with the scale of change necessitated by its 1.5°C pathway.