Taiwan’s state refiner, CPC Corp, said it has received the country’s first crude cargo with certified carbon offset from SOCAR Trading, the trading arm of Azerbaijan’s state oil company.

The refiner is seeking to reduce its carbon footprint through voluntary carbon offsets as Taiwan aims to become carbon neutral by 2050.

The cargo of about 1.05 million barrels of Azeri Light crude oil arrived in Taiwan on Sunday morning with cradle-to-gate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions being offset with carbon credits certified by the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS), CPC said on its website.

Cradle-to-gate GHG emissions refer to emissions from the development, production and processing of the oil to its transportation by pipeline ship to Taiwan.

The GHG emissions were calculated with Deloitte and Siglar Carbon, CPC said.

SOCAR Trading arranged and structured VCS registered carbon offset supply and retirement, the refiner said, without elaborating on the cost of the offset.

The credits were issued less than six years ago, with the majority derived from nature-based projects that also have additional Climate, Community and Biodiversity (CCB) accreditation, CPC added.

Intertek and Climate Neutral Commodity certified the trade as carbon neutral, CPC said.

CPC operates two refineries at Taoyuan and Dalin in Taiwan with a combined refining capacity of 600,000 barrels per day.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Florence Tan, Editing by Louise Heavens)