Aramco’s new disclosures still understate its carbon footprint

Saudi Aramco still has a long way to go in ensuring that its emissions disclosures match those of other oil majors.

Oil companies are under pressure to cut emissions. That process starts with disclosing their entire carbon footprint so that investors and the public can hold them to account. Earlier this year, a Bloomberg Green analysis showed that the world’s largest oil company, Saudi Aramco, understated its emissions by as much as 50%. The company’s 2019 disclosures only included wholly owned assets that were in Saudi Arabia, leaving out a number of high-emitting assets abroad. In response, the company said it would boost its reporting. In its latest annual report released in March, Aramco revised its 2019 emissions from 57.9 million metric tons of carbon-dioxide equivalent to 71 million tons. That’s a 23% increase, which the company attributed to adding emissions from three wholly owned assets in Saudi Arabia, the U.S. and Germany.