Saudi Aramco excludes emissions data in disclosures to investors

The world's biggest oil company's self-reported carbon footprint might nearly double, adding as much as 55 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent to its annual tally, if those facilities are included, according to the report.

Saudi oil giant Aramco has excluded emissions generated from many of its refineries and petrochemical plants in its overall carbon disclosures to investors, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, based on a review of public filings.

Saudi shipments to China in 2020 were rose 1.9% from a year earlier to 84.92 million tonnes. In picture - Saudi Aramco's Ras Tanura oil refinery and oil terminal. (Reuters)

The world's biggest oil company's self-reported carbon footprint might nearly double, adding as much as 55 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent to its annual tally, if those facilities are included, according to the report.

Much of the omissions are because Aramco chooses to report data from facilities it wholly owns and ones located inside the kingdom, Bloomberg News said, while many of its refineries are joint ventures or located overseas.

Aramco's 2019 emissions would have been between 75 million tons and 113 million tons if missing emissions are included, according to Bloomberg News' calculations based on data from a Nature Climate Change study published last year.

Aramco did not immediately reply to Reuters' request for comment. The company told Bloomberg News that it would begin disclosing direct emissions from its full global operations this year.