ChevronTexaco, a global energy company, has developed and implemented energy utilization and GHG estimation and reporting software consistent with the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard. This software is available free of charge and makes it easier, more accurate, and less costly to institute a corporate-wide GHG accounting and reporting system in the oil and gas sector. Called the SANGEA^TM  Energy and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Estimating System, it is currently in use at all ChevronTexaco facilities worldwide, comprising more than 70 reporting entities.

The system is auditable, Excel-and-Visual-Basic-based tool for estimating GHG emissions and energy utilization. It streamlines corporate-level data consolidation by allowing the inventory coordinator at each facility to configure a spreadsheet, enter monthly data, and send quarterly reports to a centralized database.

In practice, the SANGEA^TM  system employs a variety of strategies to ensure consistent calculation methods and ease company-wide standardization:

• Spreadsheet configuration and material input information for specific facilities can be carried over from year to year. Inventory specialists can easily modify configurations as a facility changes (due to new construction, retirement of units, etc.)

• Updates are efficient. Methodologies for estimating emissions, emission factors, and calculation equations are stored centrally in the software, easing updates when methodologies or default factors change. Updates to this central reference are automatically applied to the existing configuration and input data. Updates will mirror the timing and content of updates to the American Petroleum Institute Compendium of GHG emission estimating methodologies.

• The system is auditable. The software requires detailed audit trail information on data input s and system users. There is documented accountability of who made any change to the system.

• Using one system saves money. Significant cost savings are achieved by using the same system in all facilities, as compared to conventional, disparate systems.

ChevronTexaco's one-off investment in developing the SANGEA^TM  system has already shown results: A rough cost estimate for ChevronTexaco's Richmond, California, refinery indicates savings of more than 70 percent over a five-year period compared with the conventional approaches based on locally developed reporting systems. SANGEA^TM is expected to reduce the long term expenses of maintaining a legacy system and hiring independent consultants. Employing a combination of the GHG Protocol Corporate Standards and SANGEA^TM calculation software to replace a diverse and confusing set of accounting and reporting templates yields significant efficiency and accuracy gains, and allows the company to more accurately manage GHG emissions and institute specific emissions improvements.