Oil producers are being forced to reduce their pollution. The first step in this process is to disclose their entire carbon footprint so that investors and the general public can keep them accountable.

A Bloomberg Green report earlier this year revealed that Saudi Aramco, the world's largest oil firm, understated its emissions by as much as 50%. Only wholly owned assets in Saudi Arabia were included in the company's 2019 filings, leaving out a range of high-emitting assets elsewhere. As a result, the company stated that it would increase its monitoring.

Aramco updated its 2019 emissions from 57.9 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent to 71 million tonnes in its latest annual report published in March. The corporation related the rise to pollution from three wholly owned properties in Saudi Arabia, the United States, and Germany. Since the pandemic reduced demand for oil and gas, the industry recorded 67 million tonnes of emissions last year, marginally less than in 2019. However, a close inspection of the statistics indicates that Aramco still has a long way to go in terms of guaranteeing that its pollution disclosures are comparable to those of other oil majors such as Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Chevron Corp.

In its 2020 annual report, Aramco admitted that pollution from two fully owned facilities were not included in the total. In 2020, the Fadhili Gas Plant and the Jazan Refinery were not completely operational and were in different phases of launch and commissioning. However, it will begin counting those facilities in its 2021 study.

In addition, the organisation has only disclosed emissions from properties for which it has effective control. That means the majority of its joint projects in Saudi Arabia and across the world would be excluded. According to Bloomberg calculations, multiple refineries and chemical plants could add up to 28 million tonnes to the company's direct pollution inventory based on Aramco's ownership share.

So far, Aramco has only disclosed Scope 1 and 2 pollutants, which result from the company's operations combustion of fossil fuels or importing electricity to fuel its houses. Customers who burn the company's fossil fuels produce Scope 3 pollutants which the company does not report.

According to Bloomberg Opinion, Aramco's Scope 3 emissions total 1.6 billion tonnes, accounting for more than 4% of all global pollution Even Exxon Mobil Corp, which is adamant about not revealing Scope 3 figures among Western oil firms, began doing so early this year.

In response to complaints regarding the company's most recent filings, Aramco said that it "aims to preserve its track record of having one of the lowest productions of carbon footprints and one of the lowest methane intensities in the industry. Aramco has a transparent and intentional road to increase details of pollution transparency”.

Although it is true that Saudi Arabia's oil extraction process generates the least amount emissions per barrel, the company's inadequate documentation makes comparing the oil giant's carbon credentials to its rivals impossible. If the world's top emitters don't reveal the true nature of their effect on ambient carbon dioxide levels, the world is doubtful to achieve net-zero emissions within decades.