Archie life cycle carbon intensity model makes splash at CERAWeek

Dozens of executives from the world's top technology and energy companies, along with policymakers from Asia, Europe, the United States, and Latin America, visited the Aramco booth at CERAWeek to hear our researchers talk about the scientific work that went into making Archie, and to see how it could be used to make better decisions about how to most effectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions in global oil operations.

Archie captures 98% of global oil production, draws on more than 900 public data sources, and analyzes more than 500 refineries and 9,000 oil fields across 93 countries to provide an unparalleled understanding of the life cycle carbon intensity of the global oil supply chain.

Numerous visitors said they were impressed by the depth, breadth and sophistication of the model, which was displayed on a large video wall inside Aramco's booth at the event. Archie stands for the “Aramco carbon emissions high-level intensity estimator.”

The model allows people to trace crude oil and investigate the life cycle carbon intensity estimation from the source to destination in distinct markets around the world. Intelligently tracking oil supply chains to increase transparency would allow stakeholders, from industry leaders, policymakers, investors, to consumers, to make more informed decisions on which supply chain channels have the lowest
end-to-end carbon intensity.

“We received a lot of very positive feedback from a wide-range of visitors who recognized the potential of Archie to provide much needed transparency and granularity to the discussion about the role of hydrocarbons in a low carbon future,” said Hassan Houjeiri, head of Technology Outreach and Impact Analysis in the Technology Strategy and Planning Department. He piloted Archie during the week with his colleagues Jean-Christophe Monfort and James A. Littlefield.

The data visualization tool's debut is the latest milestone in Aramco's pioneering work to track carbon emissions associated with the entire global oil supply chain.

Archie brings to life several studies published in leading peer-reviewed journals, namely Science, Nature Climate Change and Nature Energy. The work is based on collaborative research and data sources from Stanford University, the University of Calgary, MIT, the Argonne National Laboratory, and Wood Mackenzie.

Aramco researchers are working on plans to routinely update the data sets used in the model and are evaluating ways to share the model with other organizations and scientists.