Direct greenhouse gas emissionsmillion tonnes CO2 equivalent
The direct greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from facilities we operate were 73 million tonnes on a CO2-equivalent basis in 2013, which is slightly higher than 72 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2012. The main reasons for this increase were the ramp-up of production at the Pearl GTL plant in Qatar and the restart of production at Majnoon in Iraq following completion of refurbishment activities and start-up of the new central processing facility. These increases were partially offset by reduced flaring in Nigeria in line with lower production, and the conversion of the Clyde refinery in Australia and our Harburg refinery in Germany to terminals.
Around 50% of our direct GHG emissions came from the refineries and chemical plants in our Downstream business. The production of oil and gas in our Upstream business, including GTL, accounted for more than 45% of our direct GHG emissions, and our shipping activities for less than 5%. We continue to work on improving operational performance and energy efficiency to reduce GHG emissions.
The indirect GHG emissions from the energy we purchased (electricity, heat, steam and cooling) were 10 million tonnes on a CO2-equivalent basis in 2013, which is slightly higher compared to 9 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2012. We estimate that the CO2 emissions from the use of our refinery and natural gas products were around 600 million tonnes in 2013. Further information on GHG emissions is available on our corporate website.