The Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI), which is composed of 13 major global oil and gas companies, announced on Monday a target to reduce by 2025 the collective average methane intensity of its aggregated upstream gas and oil operations by one fifth to below 0.25 percent.
The methane intensity refers to the methane that gets lost into the atmosphere when producing oil and gas, as a percentage of the gas sold.
Achieving the agreed methane intensity target of 0.25 percent by the end of 2025 would reduce collective emissions by 350,000 tonnes of methane annually, compared to the baseline of 0.32 percent in 2017, according to a press release from the OGCI, whose members include BP, Chevron, CNPC, Eni, Equinor, ExxonMobil, Occidental, Pemex, Petrobras, Repsol, Saudi Aramco, Shell and Total.
'OGCI will seek to go beyond this target, to achieve as much as one-third reduction [0.20 percent] in the same timeframe,' the statement said.
This effort represents a significant 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, it added.
The heads of the OGCI member companies said their aim was 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 realize its full potential in a low-emissions future,' they added.
To reduce the OGCI's collective methane emissions intensity, member companies will target key emissions sources. OGCI members are also engaging with other companies in the industry to help ensure that methane emissions are addressed across the full gas value chain, according to the statement.
-Three new members
This methane target comes as OGCI -- launched in 2014 -- welcomed last week Chevron, Exxon Mobil, and Occidental Petroleum, three U.S. majors that together represent 5 percent of global oil and gas production, to the initiative.
New member companies raise OGCI's representation to around 30 percent of global oil and gas production. In addition, each will commit $100 million to the $1+ billion OGCI Climate Investments fund, through which OGCI aims to increase the ambition, speed and scale of initiatives to reduce greenhouse gases.
'Today, OGCI Climate Investments announced its 2018 investments, focused on recycling and storing CO2 and on reducing methane emissions. Deployment of these technical solutions will support OGCI's mandate,' the statement said.
In order to expand its global impact, OGCI Climate Investments also on Monday jointly announced with the Chinese National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) that they are partnering to create OGCI Climate Investments China, an investment fund focused on China.
By Hale Turkes
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr