Energy and Climate Change

Energy and Climate Change refers to global warming attributed to the consumption of fossil fuels. Bapco continually improves its energy efficiency through technical upgrade of our facilities and optimising the way in which those facilities are operated. Some of these initiatives are outlined in this section.

GRI 103-01, 103-02, 103-03: Management approach

Our Energy Conservation Policy aims to reduce overall energy consumption to conserve natural resources. Bapco has established an Energy Committee with dedicated Energy Champions to focus on energy conservation through monitoring energy use, raising awareness and implementing energy efficient programs. We use solar energy to offset our consumption of fossil fuels. Solar energy generated onsite by us supplies our Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP) and the buildings in the Awali township.

It is our responsibility to:

• Develop energy management programs with the objective of improving energy efficiency;

• Emphasise energy conservation as a factor in the design of new facilities and during operation of all assets; and

• Encourage employee awareness of energy consumption within the home and workplace.

To improve our energy efficiency we:

• Operate existing facilities efficiently until such time that there is an economic justification for capital investment to reduce the energy consumption;

• Adopt initiatives that reduce the environmental impact of energy production within the Kingdom of Bahrain;

• Participate in various committees at the national level focused on energy conservation and development of renewable energy to meet Bahrain’s national target of 5% Renewable Energy by 2025 and 10% by 2035;

• Develop and coordinate energy conservation and optimisation strategies within the company;

• Use innovative and efficient technologies that are economically justifiable; and

• Ensure that all employees are aware of the importance of energy conservation through focused campaigns and programs.

To fulfil our responsibilities under the Energy Policy, Bapco established an Energy Group, as part of the Technical Services Department, and an Energy Committee which is formed by a multidisciplinary team with members from diverse departments.

The energy group and the committee focus on energy conservation throughout the Refinery via projects and initiatives focusing on energy reduction, efficiency improvement, raising awareness throughout energy campaigns and importing new technologies like energy monitoring software. 40 Energy Champions working directly with day-to-day field activities to promote and enhance energy conservation culture.

Our energy conservation awareness is not just limited within the company, but also extended to our community. We participate in safety weeks targeted to the public, as well as visiting schools and giving presentations on energy conservation.

GRI 201-02: Financial implications and other risks and opportunities due to climate change

Bapco is potentially impacted by climate change both through the physical risks for our industrial processes and the changing regulatory conditions under which we operate.

Physical risks

Climate change increases the potential physical risks of operation. Weather extremes are generally acknowledged to be more severe and occur more commonly. This requires us to consider the impact of potentially severe weather on both the design of our process units and the training of personnel who may encounter more extreme weather. Operational constraints such as wind loading are routinely considered within the design and operation of our facilities. We have invested in augmented reality training for personnel who have to work exposed to weather conditions, for example those working at height. Work would additionally not be undertaken if environmental conditions were unsafe.

Climate change also leads to increased ambient sea water temperature. Bapco requires water as the cooling medium to the various Refinery units, for utilities requiring a supply of water, and to make up (or replace) water lost during evaporative cooling. Refer to 303-03 under Our Environment. Both seawater and groundwater are used by Bapco in our refining activities. Climate change places greater demand on cooling processes, as greater volumes of water are required for heat transfer or during evaporative cooling. We have comprehensively redesigned our cooling water processes to support BMP and have considered projected seawater temperature rises within our design criteria. These considerations include the return water temperature to ensure that we will continue to meet the statutory requirements for water discharge set by SCE.

Regulatory risks

The world economy is fundamentally shifting in its view of fossil fuel consumption as nations seek to limit the impacts of climate change. Bapco, as a producer of petrochemical products, will inevitably be impacted with these changes. This is why we are initiating several transformation programmes now to better align Bapco to meet the future challenges. BMP is our medium-term response to changing economic need, improving both our product slate (i.e. the range and commercial value of our petroleum products) and the energy efficiency with which these products can be produced - thereby also helping reduce our impact on climate change.

GRI 302-01: Energy consumption within the organisation

Bapco’s facilities require fuel gas and electricity to function. Bapco has the capacity to generate both types of energy onsite, with the balance purchased from third party energy supplies. Refer to the table below for our data trends. The engineering basis for power consumption is thermal for fuel gas and electrical for electrical power.

The fuel gas flowrates are converted into thermal energy equivalents using the calculated Lower Heating Value of the fuel gas. Gas flaring (except for purge and pilot gas) is not included in the total fuel consumption.

GRI 302-02: Energy consumption outside of the organisation

For the current reporting period, data covering the energy consumption outside the organisation is not available.

GRI 302-03: Energy intensity

Bapco calculates energy intensity using the proprietary Solomon Energy Intensity Index®, and therefore cannot publish these data.

GRI 302-05: Reduction in energy requirements of products and services

This Disclosure concerns the reduction in energy requirements of sold products and services and therefore does not apply to Bapco.

GRI 302-04: Reduction of energy consumption

Throughout the year 2020 and 2021, Bapco has taken several initiatives to reduce its energy consumption that include:

• Shutting down some crude and secondary unites instead of running at turndown due to low market demand;

• Optimising Sulphur recovery unit Incinerator by reducing the stack Temperature;

• Optimising of excess oxygen at process heaters;

• Optimising steam to Booster ejector;

• Optimising stripping steam;

• Optimising cooling by shutdown overhead fan coolers;

• Implementing the daily recommendation of the Energy real time Optimizer “Visual MESA”; and

• Maximising utility of the Hydrogen Makeup Compressor using HydroCOM “step-less load management system”.

The output of these initiatives are reflected by the data reported in the table below.