French energy group TotalEnergies has unveiled a plan to accelerate emission reductions at its Antwerp oil refinery, De Standaard reports. The new investments would amount to around €500 million.
This move comes after the company received a scathing report from the Antwerp provincial government about its planned emissions reductions early this year. With its new emission reductions plan, the company will now pledge to significantly reduce emissions of sulphur, nitrogen compounds (NOx), and CO2 emissions.
According to a dossier submitted by the company to the Antwerp municipality, in a bid to renew its licence, TotalEnergies will put forward at least €110 million, or at most €485 million, towards achieving these goals.
TotalEnergies’ refinery has come under extreme scrutiny from local authorities, who are unhappy about the company’s commitments to environmental targets. The process for regaining its licence has not gone smoothly this year, with the Antwerp government committing only to a two year “trial licence” in April.
The French energy company is eager to maintain its licence for what is the largest oil refinery in the port of Antwerp. One of the main criticisms of the site by the Antwerp government is that TotalEnergies’ emissions reductions plans were imprecise and lacking ambition.
“It is a permit on probation, because TotalEnergies has not done its homework fully,” N-VA politician Luk Lemmens said in April. The energy company appealed against the decision to offer permits on probation, but has otherwise listened to the government’s demands to get serious on environmental protection.
New targets
After a year of deliberation, TotalEnergies has officially pushed its new relicensing agreement through a public enquiry, pledging to make emissions savings faster. From the start of next year, the refinery is committed to speeding up CO2 emissions savings. In 2024, it must reduce its current emissions (4 million tonnes of CO2) by 58%.
To achieve this ambitious goal, the group has announced that it will agree on an investment of an additional 450 million towards a carbon capture plant by the end of next year. This is hoped to slash CO2 emissions to 780,000 tonnes by 2029. Other goals set forward by TotalEnergies include a 32% reduction of nitrogen emissions by 2029.
If TotalEnergies is unable to secure a greenlight for its carbon capture project, it pledges to cut nitrogen emissions even faster- by 32% by 2027 at the expense of another €65 million. The refinery will allocate another 45 million to slash sulphur emissions by 43% by 2025.
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In a comment to De Standaard, Tom Claerout, Head of Public Affairs in Belgium for TotalEnergies, stated that the planned reductions go well beyond what is demanded under current legislation.
“It shows that we are serious about reducing the environmental impact of the oil refinery,” he insists. The new investments will be in addition to another €140 million already planned over the course of the next two years.
Ultimately, the Flemish Environmental Minister Zuhal Demir will have the final say on whether the Antwerp oil refinery gets its new licence to operate. The region will offer its opinion on the case by 10 January and a final decision will be made by the minister in February.
