EnLink is focused on continuously improving our efficiency and driving innovation. We have set both near- and long-term, sustainable goals to reduce our emissions intensity, thereby furthering our role in the energy transformation.
Energy Use and Emissions
EnLink's focus on reducing carbon emissions includes reducing methane emissions from our operations. EnLink utilizes best practices to reduce emissions, such as using optical gas imaging for leak detection and repair. We’ve continued to improve our emissions performance and operational efficiency by replacing flares with thermal oxidizers at many of our plants and installing vapor recovery units and exhaust catalysts.
We closely monitor our energy consumption and evaluate ways to optimize our usage to maximize our sustainability impact. We employ processes that allow us to repurpose exhaust heat, a byproduct of operations, for warming purposes required elsewhere in our process.
Emissions Reduction Targets
EnLink combines our industry know-how with our continuous innovation process to evolve how we operate as we become a more sustainable, leading midstream company. We believe that we all can play a role in minimizing our impact on the environment.
In 2022, we made progress on our near-term emissions reduction targets, announced in 2021, which include:
- Achieving a 30% reduction in scope 1 methane emissions intensity by 2024 as compared to 2020 levels; this is a high-impact step, as methane has a global warming potential 25 times that of carbon dioxide (CO₂)¹
- Pursuing a path to reach a 30% reduction in our total scope 1 carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂e) emissions intensity by 2030 as compared to 2020 levels
EnLink formed a cross-functional Emissions Reduction Team (ERT) in 2021 to create a framework for pursuing emissions intensity reductions. This team includes representatives from Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS); Engineering; Operations; Operational Excellence; Investor Relations; and members of our Executive Leadership Team. The ERT evaluates data, conducts research, and reports their ongoing plans and recommendations to both EnLink’s full Executive Leadership Team and the Board-level Sustainability Committee.
EnLink is evaluating numerous emissions reduction innovations, process improvements, and opportunities to help accomplish these goals, including:
- Replacing or retrofitting natural gas-driven pneumatic devices to lower-emitting or zero-emitting alternatives
- Placing 20 compressor engines into service with new technology that eliminates or captures raw methane emissions and minimizes combustion emissions
- Increasing usage of renewable energy to power our operations
- Utilizing natural gas-driven equipment to run on electricity
- Implementing carbon capture technologies for beneficial reuses or sequestration of carbon dioxide
- Utilizing voluntary optical gas imaging monitoring programs
- Installing emissions control equipment to reduce and minimize emissions
- Modifying of operational processes to recover and recycle natural gas to minimize methane and flaring volumes
By year-end 2022, EnLink accomplished approximately 63% of our 2024 emissions intensity goal through cost-effective measures like replacing high-bleed equipment with low or no-bleed equipment and replacing gas operated pneumatics with compressed air. EnLink continues work toward its goal of a 30% reduction and believes it can achieve this goal by 2024.
In June 2022, we announced a definitive agreement with BKV Corp. to partner on a carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) project in North Texas’ Barnett Shale. The project, which is anticipated to come online in late 2023, will capture and permanently store carbon from EnLink’s Bridgeport natural gas processing facility at a BKV sequestration site. This is EnLink’s second carbon capture announcement for the Bridgeport plant, having announced in 2021 a 15-year agreement with Continental Carbonic Products to capture CO2 emitted from the Bridgeport plant to sell for use in food-grade products. Combined, these projects make meaningful progress toward our goal of a 30% reduction in total CO2e emissions intensity by 2030 by reducing emissions by an anticipated 250,000 metric tonnes per year (MTPY) of CO2e.
EnLink will continue to focus on cost-effective ways to achieve its environmental goals. In 2022, EnLink began a project to place a flash gas recycling compressor into service at EnLink’s Plaquemine NGL Fractionator; the project, which was completed in early 2023, reduced CO2e emissions by approximately 2,500 MTPY and is estimated to achieve an annual revenue of $1.7 million due to the high ethane content of the recycled gas.
EnLink was awarded grant funding of $4.42 million by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality in 2021 for compression engine emissions reduction projects in our North Texas operating area. The funding is assisting EnLink in replacing 13 engines at six locations with lower emissions units, which we anticipate will decrease the regulated pollutant emissions and greenhouse gas emissions by over 7,000 metric tonnes (MT) of CO2e. In 2022, EnLink put nine of the 13 low-emitting units into service at four different locations.
Environmental Industry Organization Participation
EnLink continued its participation in The Environmental Partnership, which we joined in 2021. The Environmental Partnership is a collaboration of oil and natural gas companies that are focused on addressing our industry’s environmental impacts and implementing emissions reduction solutions. By participating in The Environmental Partnership, we are demonstrating our commitment to further implement practices that reduce methane emissions and are participating in a forum of industry leaders committed to improving the environmental performance of our industry.
- Overview of Greenhouse Gases: Methane Emissions; from the United States Environmental Protection Agency: https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/overview-greenhouse-gases
More in the "Responsible Operations" section:
- Responsible Operations Overview
- Environmental Performance & Stewardship
- GoalZERO Safety
- Emergency Preparedness
- Asset Integrity Management
Other sections:
The information and data (collectively, “Information”) provided in EnLink’s 2022 Sustainability Report (“Report”) reflects content as of and for the period ending December 31, 2022, unless otherwise indicated. Such Information in this Report is for informational purposes only. EnLink does not make, and hereby expressly disclaims, any representation or warranty as to the accuracy or completeness of the Information contained herein. This Report is being published on August 1, 2023, and EnLink has no obligation or duty to (1) update or correct the Information, (2) provide additional details regarding the Information, or (3) continue to provide the Information, in any form, in the future. EnLink reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to modify, update, change, delete, or supplement the Information from time to time without notice. The Information should not be interpreted as any form of guaranty or assurance of future results or trends. EnLink is not expressly incorporating by reference any of the Information into any filing of EnLink made with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission or in any other filing, report, application, or statement made by EnLink to any federal, state, or local governmental authority. This Report contains information based upon EnLink’s role in the broader economy, environment, and society and for the purpose of responding to issues that are important to a wide range of interested parties. While events, scenarios, and efforts discussed in this report may be significant, any significance should not be read as necessarily rising to the level of materiality of the disclosures required under U.S. federal securities laws, which have distinct and specific concepts of materiality.