POSSIBILITIES OF EMISSION REDUCTION IN PETROL INDUSTRY

Petroleum industry is one of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) intensive industries. Beside direct CO(2) and CH(4) emissions during oil and gas production, petroleum industry is also characterized with high-energy intensity and final products with high emission potentials. Besides facing the same problems as other petroleum industries, due to new high ecological standards, Croatian petroleum industry is also faced with lack of domestic legal regulative addressing stabilization of GHG emissions and, at the same time, increasing international pressure for adoption of international environmental regulations. Besides decreasing their own emissions, petroleum companies, as a part of industry with obligatory emission reductions, are also expected to undertake some actions and projects outside company's boundaries, which will in global result with emissions reductions and beneficial emission allowances for the company. Taking into consideration climate change factors and ecological restrictions, due to emission reduction regulations, when creating their corporative strategies, petroleum companies are improving their ability of assessment of market risks and opportunities, which arise from mentioned ecological standards and legislations. By implementing climate change factors into their corporative strategies, petroleum companies are able to mitigate business risks and to apprehend or even improve their market competitiveness. This paper includes the analysis of emission reduction methods in petroleum companies. The abilities of climate change factors implementation into business strategies of petroleum companies are also researched.