Advanced technology paves the way for a balanced and sustainable energy transition

In an exclusive interview with ADIPEC News, Balaji Krishnamurthy, Vice President at Chevron Technical Center, emphasises the critical role of technology in achieving a balanced energy transition, highlighting innovations in methane reduction, carbon capture, and renewable fuels, while underscoring the importance of partnerships to drive affordable, reliable, and low-carbon energy solutions

What role does technology play in the energy transition?

I have had the privilege of living and working around the world and seeing the profound impact of energy on society. From powering homes and industries to driving economic growth, energy is integral to everyday life. With the growing population and desire for a better standard of living, energy demand is expected to grow for decades.

All forms of energy will be needed to meet this growing demand including demand for lower carbon energy. For an orderly transition, the energy system must balance affordability, reliability, and lower carbon, and this balance will look different in different parts of the world. Building an energy system that solves for these three attributes is challenging and requires significant technological innovations at scale to enable the transition.

With oil and gas expected to play a crucial role in the global energy mix for decades, we need to find ways to lower carbon intensity while building new lower-carbon solutions. Advanced technologies such as using sensors and automation to reduce methane emissions help lower the carbon intensity in oil & gas operations. Novel technologies in carbon capture utilisation and storage (CCUS) hold the promise of reducing the cost of CCUS, enabling new lower carbon value chains.

Can you provide some examples of how technology is being used at Chevron and the benefits?

Our history and innovative spirit go back 145 years from Chevron’s predecessor company, Pacific Coast Oil, where our chief chemist, Eric A. Starke, revolutionised the refining of California’s heavy crude oil into usable kerosene in the early 1900s, to more recent technological advancements in deploying the industry’s first 20K psi deepwater technology to help unlock resources at greater pressures to meet growing energy demand.

We are applying enhanced oil recovery technology to improve recovery from reservoirs while also reimagining what is possible for our facilities and operations of the future using advances in robotics, digital twins, and automation to remove humans from hazardous conditions and drive higher efficiency and reliability.

Advanced process controls with AI/ML and facility design improvements are helping us keep methane in the pipe. Facility-level sensors, aircraft and drone flyovers, and satellites help us detect methane emissions quickly and make timely repairs. We’ve leveraged technology to reduce the methane intensity of our upstream operations by more than 50% since 2016. That puts us in the top quartile based on IEA data, and we’re not done yet.

Chevron has a long history and deep expertise in catalysis, which we are now applying to process renewable feedstock to produce renewable fuels, helping lower the carbon intensity of transportation fuels.

What is Chevron’s approach to scouting and investing in technologies?

Energy transition requires unprecedented innovation and collaboration. Partnerships are critical to scaling affordable, innovative technology solutions to support a sustainable, resilient energy system. For 25 years, our Chevron Technology Ventures (CTV) organisation has been the primary vehicle for bringing external innovation into Chevron. We have invested in over 140 startups and piloted technology from 80% of those companies. 50% of the companies are featured in our supply chain today.

CTV invested in Svante, a novel carbon capture technology, in 2014. In collaboration with Svante and the National Energy Technology Laboratory, the technology is being piloted at Chevron’s Kern River facility in San Joaquin Valley, California, to capture CO2 from the post-combustion stream.

We also invested in Carbon Clean, a carbon capture company providing solutions for hard-to-abate industries, and together, we are testing its CycloneCC™ technology on a gas turbine in San Joaquin Valley, California.

In addition to partnering with early-stage start-ups, Chevron works with traditional industry groups, including universities, national labs, startups, joint ventures, and service companies. We are proud of our Chevron Studio partnership, which links entrepreneurs with early-stage technologies developed in universities and national labs.

What are some of the hurdles in advancing technology in the energy industry?

As a society, we must invest in many technology pathways to increase the chances of breakthroughs required to build a balanced energy system and meet growing energy demand. Any technology that enables affordable, reliable, and lower-carbon energy should be considered. Picking winners and losers through policy choices or regulatory mandates can limit the solution set and create unintended consequences. We need an equal playing field to advance the best solutions.

Our industry shares the world’s ambition for reducing emissions, a challenge larger than what any one company, industry, or country can achieve alone. I am optimistic that we can overcome hurdles to energy progress through collaboration and technology advancements.