The Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI) has announced a target to reduce the collective average methane intensity of its aggregated upstream gas and oil operations by one fifth to below 0.25 per cent, with the ambition to achieve 0.20 per cent by 2025.
The methane intensity refers to the methane that gets lost in the atmosphere when producing oil and gas, as a percentage of the gas sold. This effort represents a milestone in tackling a key issue in the fight against climate change and underlines OGCI’s stance in working together to support the goals of the Paris Agreement.
Achieving the agreed intensity target of 0.25 per cent by the end of 2025 would reduce collective emissions by 350,000 tonnes of methane annually, compared to the baseline of 0.32 per cent in 2017. The OGCI seeks to go beyond this target, to achieve as much as a one-third reduction in the same timeframe.
“Our aim is to work towards near zero methane emissions from the full gas value chain in support of achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement. We have worked to make our ambition concrete, actionable and measurable, helping to ensure that natural gas can realise its full potential in a low-emissions future,” the heads of the OGCI member companies announced.
To reduce the OGCI’s collective methane emissions intensity, member companies will target key emissions sources and engage with other companies in the industry to help ensure that methane emissions are addressed across the full gas value chain.
The OGCI recently welcomed Chevron Corporation, Exxon Mobil Corporation, and Occidental Petroleum into the initiative, which together represents 5 per cent of global oil and gas production.
The OGCI aims to increase the speed and scale of the initiatives undertaken by its individual companies to help reduce manmade greenhouse gas emissions, from the production and use of oil and gas in power, heating, industry and transport. Since its launch in 2014, the OGCI is now made up of 13 oil and gas companies, including BP, Chevron, CNPC, Eni, Equinor, ExxonMobil, Occidental, Pemex, Petrobras, Repsol, Saudi Aramco, Shell and Total.
More information on the initiative can be found here.
