“CLEANER PRODUCTION” REDUCES EMISSIONS,
SAVES MONEY FOR MEXICAN OIL GIANT PEMEX

Taken from USAID "Frontlines," September, 2003, p.10

MEXICO CITY—With air quality a pressing issue in auto exhaust-choked Mexico City, U.S. technicians are working with national oil company PEMEX to reduce emissions in its operations. An added bonus is significant cost savings.

USAID’s cleaner production program in Mexico is part of a region-wide effort to show industries that reducing pollution in their activities can also be good business.

USAID and its multilateral partners have opened and supported 14 Cleaner Production Centers across Latin America and the Caribbean to advise companies on techniques to eliminate pollution during production, such as recycling or recovering industrial byproducts.

USAID and PEMEX specialists scrutinized the oil production cycle—from exploration and drilling to refining, petrochemical production, and distribution.

Simply reducing natural gas flaring at oil-field wellheads led to major reductions in emissions by PEMEX, the world’s seventh-largest petroleum company.

Energy-intensive oil refining was closely studied. Engineers reexamined every step to boost efficiency, sealing steam leaks, recycling process heat, and generally using less energy to “crack” petroleum into gasoline and other marketable compounds.

This focus on cleaner production saved PEMEX energy, water, and materials worth an estimated $562 million over the past two years. PEMEX might save $1.2 billion more in the next 10 years, if it continues the process.

Not surprisingly, PEMEX has decided to launch programs for cleaner production and efficient use of water in all of its operating subsidiaries. “PEMEX has clearly demonstrated that protecting the environment can also positively affect a firm’s bottom line,” said PEMEX Corporate Director for Industrial Security and Environmental Protection Rafael Fernández de la Garza.

Reduced energy consumption in refining and other operations meant that less carbon dioxide—the greenhouse gas known as CO2—was released. CO2 emissions were reduced by 3.1 million metric tons, based on estimates by PEMEX and USAID engineers.
That’s about 8 percent of the estimated 40 million metric tons of CO2 emitted by PEMEX in 2001.

Mexico produced 514 million tons of CO2 emissions in 2001. Its energy sector, including fixed sources such as power plants, emitted an estimated 45 percent of the total.

The Cleaner Production Centers were established through collaboration between technology transfer and energy teams from the Bureau for Economic Growth and Trade and field missions in the Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean.

USAID staff say firms have shown interest in the program because it helps them come to grips with environmental and worker health and safety issues. Economically, firms can cut production costs and improve their competitive position. The process can also yield improvements in product quality and enhance a firm’s public image.

Gil Jackson, Christian Smith, and Ian May contributed to this article.