We have constructed a simple model to estimate the CO2 emissions of commercialising an oil resource, as a function of a dozen input variables: such as flaring, methane leakage, gravity, sulphur content, production processes and transportation to market.
We estimate energy return on energy invested is c7-10x across the entire oil industry, including upstream, midstream and downstream.
Different resources are compared using our methodology. Relative advantages are seen for large, well-managed offshore oilfields and shale. Relative disadvantages are seen for heavy crudes (e.g., Oil Sands, Mexican Heavy) and producers with low regard for flaring and methane emissions (e.g., Iran, Iraq). However, gas production is lower CO2.
Download the model and you can quickly compute approximate CO2 emissions for other resources. We have also published separate data disaggregating refining CO2, gas industry CO2, drilling CO2 and development concept CO2.