A Global Push for Circular Economy Projects

Abstract

Abstract Historically, industries and society have used the linear model of economic growth, which is based on "take-make-dispose", however this model is not sustainable in today's world. A Circular Economy (CE) model supports "closing the loop" of products and services, recovering value of ecosystem services, while generating savings and creating value for companies and the society. In the Oil and Gas (O&G) business, Exploration and Production (E&P) activities take place across the globe. This is a case study on how to incorporate CE concepts across a network of global E&P activities. The aim is to leverage the organization in order to gather and share the best ideas and good practices from across the world in CE related to E&P activities. Our voyage towards the CE model was chartered in a three-axis project: Review of the waste management modelEfficient communication of CE projects across the organizationCircular decommissioning of assets Offshore assets in the E&P industry need a strategy in the short-term for decommissioning. This paper identifies the main barriers to be overtaken and a proposal of joint industry solutions. Reducing and reusing waste and raw materials is one of the main drivers to achieve a CE model. This fact led us to review our management of waste streams and establish a baseline, which allowed us to understand gaps and to develop an improvement strategy. Lastly, we knew that our Business Units (BUs) and exploration teams were full of innovative, driven professionals with good ideas and projects related to CE, but there was no focus in the Company to capture such ideas and little communication between peers in different countries. We present in this paper our vision to ensure success of a CE E&P Strategy as result of efficient communication. CE operating model, integrates the CE principles in the current business model to turn challenges into opportunities. Our expectation is to help inspire other companies in the joint global effort to achieve sustainable business development.