cogeneration

Cogeneration is the simultaneous production of electricity and thermal heat/steam. By capturing the waste heat that otherwise escapes into the atmosphere or is lost in condensing steam back to water, we are able to use it directly within our manufacturing and production facilities. Cogeneration has been a significant factor in reducing energy consumption and improving energy efficiency at ExxonMobil facilities around the world. With the latest turbine technology, cogeneration can be twice as efficient as traditional methods of producing steam and power separately.

As an industry leader in cogeneration applications, we invested more than $1 billion into cogeneration projects during 2004 to 2005 alone. We now have interest in about 100 such facilities in more than 30 locations worldwide with a combined capacity of 4300 MW of power. ExxonMobil’s current cogeneration capacity reduces global CO₂ emissions by over 10.5 million metric tons annually. The amount of CO₂ reduced is equivalent to taking about 2 million cars off the road in the United States.

In 2006, we continued the development of new cogeneration projects in Kazakhstan, Belgium, China, and Singapore, which are scheduled for completion between 2007 and 2010. These four projects alone represent a combined capacity of 875 MW of power and will bring our total cogeneration capacity to over 5000 MW by 2010.

Our cogeneration facility in Belgium, currently under construction, is designed such that nearly two-thirds of the power could be exported from the site to the public power grid. Other cogeneration projects currently under development in Europe and the United States will also consider larger configurations that have the capacity to export excess power from the sites.