雪佛龙利用太阳能降低石油生产成本

据7月24日Investing.com报道，在加利福尼亚州阳光普照的克恩山谷，雪佛龙公司利用该州的一项清洁能源计划来降低石油开采成本。

该公司称，自今年4月以来，太阳能电池板已经为雪佛龙的日产7981桶油田的油泵供电。这个29兆瓦发电站由高盛可再生能源有限责任公司(Goldman Sachs)旗下Solar Star Lost可再生能源有限责任公司所有，旨在为油田提供80%的电力，相当于减少4000多辆汽车的碳排放。作为交换，雪佛龙将获得所谓的低碳燃料标准信用额度，以当前价格计算，每年价值约400万美元。

雪佛龙公司发言人Veronica Flores Paniagua表示：“电力是Lost Hills油田最大的运营支出之一，因此拥有太阳能将是一个重要因素，有助于降低这些成本，并维持计划中的油田寿命。”

随着时间的推移，可再生能源的成本“大幅”下降，使其应用于油田更加经济，雪佛龙管道和电力公司可再生能源总经理Telisa Toliver在一次采访中表示：“我们希望复制这种商业模式。”

雪佛龙最大的太阳能油田“Lost Hills”项目标志着该州实行了10年之久的低碳燃料标准计划的命运出现了不同寻常的转折。碳交易计划的目标是到2030年减排20%，其主要目的是用乙醇和生物柴油取代汽油和柴油。但也开始惠及当地的石油公司，环保人士称，这一发展可能会破坏该项目引进更多可再生燃料的计划。

生物多样性中心的加州气候政策主任布莱恩·诺维基（Brian Nowicki）表示：“我们不应该把太阳能电池板放在石油钻井平台旁边，而应该把太阳能电池板放在更多的太阳能电池板旁边，这是我们真正开始向清洁能源过渡的方式。”

十多年来,加州一直在面对气候变化主导者和美国最大产油国之一的现实, 矿物燃料仍然主导着加州的能源结构，油轮上使用的大部分石油都是从遥远的沙特阿拉伯和伊拉克进口的。

6月初以来，加州空气资源委员会批准了三项油田太阳能项目，雪佛龙项目是其中之一。这些公司包括Grade Water and Power LLC、E&B自然资源管理公司和Rotterdam Ventures Inc。它们正受益于该计划早期加入的一项规定——允许石油开采商通过太阳能或碳捕获和储存等所谓的“创新原油生产方法”获得信贷。

在6月之前，自2016年以来，只有另外两个项目——由Seneca资源公司和Holmes Western石油公司获得了LCFS信用，这两个项目都涉及在油田使用太阳能。

王佳晶 摘译自 Investing.com

原文如下：

Chevron Is Installing Solar Panels — To Produce Oil More Cheaply

In California’s sun-drenched Kern Valley, Chevron Corp. (NYSE:CVX) has found a way to use one of the state’s clean-energy programs to cut the cost of pumping oil, to the chagrin of some environmentalists.

Since April, solar panels have been powering oil pumps at Chevron’s Lost Hills 7,981 barrel-a-day oil field, according to the company. The 29-megawatt site, owned by Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) Renewable Power Llc.-controlled Solar Star Lost Hills Llc., is designed to provide the field with 80% of its electricity, equal to taking more than 4,000 cars off the road. In exchange, Chevron will earn so-called low-carbon fuel standard credits worth about $4 million a year at current prices.

“Electricity is one of Lost Hills field’s largest operating expenses, so having solar will be an important factor to help keep those costs down and maintain the planned oil field life,” Veronica Flores-Paniagua, a Chevron spokeswoman, said in an email.

Renewable energy costs have fallen “substantially” over time, making its application to oil fields more economic, Telisa Toliver, Chevron Pipeline & Power’s general manager for renewable power, said in an interview. “We see this business model for us as something we hope to replicate,” she said.

The Lost Hills project, Chevron’s largest solar-powered oil field, marks an unusual twist in the fate of the state’s decade-old Low Carbon Fuel Standard Program. The carbon-trading plan, designed to cut emissions 20% by 2030, has mostly been used to supplant gasoline and diesel with ethanol and biodiesel in vehicles. But it’s starting to benefit local oil companies as well, a development that environmentalists say may subvert the program’s intent of ushering in more renewable fuels.

“Instead of putting solar panels alongside oil rigs, we should be putting solar panels next to more solar panels,” Brian Nowicki, California Climate Policy Director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said by email. “That’s how we start truly transitioning to cleaner energy.”

For more than a decade, California has struggled to reconcile a leadership role in the fight against climate change with the reality of being among the biggest oil-producing states in the U.S. Fossil fuels still dominate California’s energy mix, with most of the oil that’s used imported in tankers from as far away as Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

The Chevron project is one of three oil-field solar projects approved for LCFS credits by the California Air Resources Board since early June. The companies, including Grade Water and Power LLC., E&B Natural Resources Management Corp. and Rotterdam Ventures Inc., are benefiting from a provision that was added to the program in its early years allowing oil drillers to qualify for credits through so-called “innovative crude oil production methods” such as solar or carbon-capture-and-storage.

Before June, just two other projects -- by Seneca Resources Co. and Holmes Western Oil Corp. -- were approved for LCFS credits since 2016, both involving the use of solar power at oil fields.