Mr Andrew Mingst, General Manager of APAC, Chevron New Energies, shares insights on the role of partnerships and emerging technologies in accelerating the energy transition. He discusses the importance of economically viable solutions, sound policy, and the need for interconnectivity in building a sustainable and lower carbon energy future. Mr Mingst also offers a perspective on how Chevron New Energies envisions a more connected and sustainable energy future, aligning with this year's SIEW theme.
Carbon capture, utilisation & storage (CCUS) are a huge part of Chevron’s effort in supporting the energy transition. How do you see CCUS contributing to decarbonisation in Asia Pacific, particularly in hard-to-abate sectors?
CCUS will be vital to advancing lower carbon progress by reducing the emissions of energy production and other critical industrial sectors. Chevron is innovating to reduce the cost and risk of CCUS technology and make it affordable at scale. Together with our customers and partners, we can build a durable and responsible CCUS industry that works for all stakeholders in the region.
Energy-intensive industries such as energy, steel, cement and chemical manufacturing are vital to the global economy. Yet no viable solutions exist at scale to reduce their carbon emissions. CCUS can provide a solution. By providing a CO2 reduction solution for such hard-to-abate industries, CCUS can help society continue to benefit from economic growth. At the same time, CCUS can make progress on global carbon reduction.
How are advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics, and automation contributing to innovation and progress in the transition to cleaner energy sources?
Transforming the global energy system requires advancing technology and delivering solutions that scale. Chevron's leading experts, solutions developers, energy innovators, and problem solvers are searching for the next technology breakthroughs. We're focused on technologies that are ready to adopt and scale today, as well as breakthrough technologies in support of traditional and new energy businesses.
As we continue to reduce the carbon intensity of our products, we're applying advanced technologies to help the energy system stay resilient (affordable and reliable) as it transitions. Some specific examples include CCUS. Carbon capture technologies help make a lower carbon future possible. We're leveraging our expertise in operations, drilling, subsurface, and capital projects to develop carbon capture technologies that can scale at competitive cost. We're also engineering safe and reliable CO2 injection and storage solutions.
Hydrogen also has significant potential to become a key enabler of the energy transition. We're working to achieve commercially viable, lower carbon intensity hydrogen by addressing technical challenges in compression and long-distance transportation.
We're also accelerating growth in lower carbon biodiesel, renewable diesel, compressed natural gas, and sustainable aviation fuel.
In your view, what are the opportunities for hydrogen in Asia, and what do you think the region needs to support hydrogen adoption?
Hydrogen will play an important role in a lower carbon economy and is a key element of Chevron's integrated lower carbon strategy. Chevron is well positioned to create a successful hydrogen business that builds on our experience, capabilities and customer relationships.
Hydrogen is a highly versatile energy carrier. It can be produced from many abundant domestic resources and has a high energy content by weight. Heavy duty transportation, power generation, hard-to-abate manufacturing and global trade represent Chevron's strategic priorities for building its hydrogen business, including in the Asia Pacific region.
How can partnerships support low carbon technologies and accelerate decarbonisation, supporting a more connected and sustainable energy world, this year's SIEW theme?
For the energy transition to succeed, solutions must be economically viable. This is a reality we must confront. It's challenging but I'm optimistic because we know where we need to go–the future of energy is lower carbon.
The difficulty of scaling any new innovation lies in getting started–and then creating the confidence and momentum needed for faster progress. Many of the technologies required for the energy transition come with development uncertainties and higher capital costs. Sound policy becomes vital to reduce this risk and remove barriers to private investment.
Solar and wind are evidence of how policy can drive growth. Today, solar and wind capacity is 10-fold what it was a decade ago. This is thanks to supportive policies that facilitated US$750 billion in economic incentives over the same time frame (International Energy Agency). Policy is an essential tool to create the early certainty needed to establish long-term, market demand-driven solutions. This is how new industries are born and thrive.
Partnerships are equally important to achieve a lower carbon future. In July 2024, Chevron New Energies signed a Joint Development Study Agreement with PT Pupuk Indonesia. The agreement is centred around evaluating carbon capture solutions and the possibility of producing low carbon ammonia at PT Pupuk Kalimantan Timur's industrial area in East Kalimantan, Indonesia.
About Andrew Mingst, General Manager, APAC, Chevron New Energies
Mr Andrew Mingst is General Manager of Chevron New Energies based in Singapore, with regional responsibility for Asia Pacific and Middle East. He is responsible for accelerating Chevron's lower carbon business prospects, including the commercialisation of hydrogen in transportation, power, industrial, and other difficult-to-abate sectors. He also provides regional coordination for carbon capture, utilisation & storage opportunities.
In 2005, he joined Chevron to lead the company's entry into the emerging carbon emissions markets in the European Union. Mr Mingst subsequently held strategic planning and commercial roles with Chevron's Upstream businesses in Perth, Australia, and in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. He was also involved with Chevron's central support functions, including Corporate Strategy & Sustainability.
Prior to Chevron, Mr Mingst was a senior researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory where he supported electricity market deregulation in the US. Earlier in his career, he was a regulator for the United States Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Air & Radiation. In this role, he led the design of Federal cap-and-trade programmes for US electric power sectors.
Mr Mingst has degrees from Cornell University and Yale University.