The Cop27 Light Bulb Moment List #2

We’ve all had them. Those flashes of inspiration that the solution to a problem is staring us in the face. In this series, we look at some of the best eco innovations being showcased by the Saudi Green Initiative at Cop27 that promise to shine brightly. Number two in our list? Meet Archie...

Meet Archie — a.k.a. the ‘Aramco Carbon-emissions High-level Intensity Estimator (Aramco)

#2 Archie

Developed by The Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Aramco)

The problem: how to effectively reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in global oil operations, crucial since most transport (for example, air travel) remains almost entirely dependent on petroleum products, without any near-term substitutions in sight.

The light bulb moment: As the former CEO of LinkedIn, Jeff Weiner once said, “Data really powers everything that we do.” It’s impossible to address the above problem without information. Hence, the creation of a platform to track carbon emissions for the entire global oil supply chain.

What happened next?

If you ever followed a plane on Flightradar24, the odds are you’ll love Archie.

Born earlier this year, Archie’s arrival was enthusiastically greeted by scientists and boffins globally.  After all, who wouldn’t be excited by an interactive map that traces every drop of oil produced globally from source to destination?

Producing, transporting, and refining crude oil into fuels such as gasoline and diesel accounts for 15 to 40% of the “well-to-wheels” life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions of transport fuels.

Archie — a.k.a. the ‘Aramco carbon emissions high-level intensity estimator’ — captures 98% of global oil production, 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. It draws on more than 900 public data sources, along with journal articles from the likes of Science and academic reports. The result? An unmatched level of detail and granularity — and a platform where oil barrels are differentiated environmentally, based on where and how they’re produced and refined in the world.

Archie’s database draws on over 900 data sources such as this report by Stanford University, which looked at the carbon intensity of 9,000 individuals oil fields and shown country-by-country (Stanford University)

But the real joy is how Archie not only makes a hugely-complicated topic accessible and easy to understand, but also fascinating and engaging. Users can interact with the map to view the carbon intensity of oil extraction and processing plants, refining, as well as pipelines and oil shipping routes anywhere in the world.

What’s the environmental impact? Archie provides a level of transparency that is crucial to the climate and energy transition discussions, benefitting policy-makers, energy producers and consumers.

What’s next? Archie will become public in 2023 and in the meantime the scientists will be adding annual updates, and have plans to brand out to cover global power generation and gas.

Find out more about the MGI summit and SGI forum here: greeninitiatives.gov.sa