Oil and Gas Industry to Track Methane Emissions
By: Suvarna Satish
Tags: Net Zero Emission, European Union, Climate Action, Oil And Gas Industry, Methane Emissions

Major players in the oil and gas industry have committed to a new framework to monitor, report and reduce their methane emissions in a move aimed at tackling “one of the biggest and most solvable contributors to the climate crisis”. As a part of the Oil and Gas Methane Partnership 2.0, they agreed to report methane emissions with a new and much higher level of transparency, on 23rd November, 2020.

Methane is the second highest greenhouse gas contributor to climate change following carbon dioxide. Over 100 years, methane has 28 times greater global warming potential than carbon dioxide and is 84 times more potent over a 20-year period. Reducing methane emissions is one of the priority initiatives in the European Green Deal and the EU’s methane strategy shows promising potential to boost EU efforts towards key climate objectives, such as an increased ambition on greenhouse gas reduction. Actions to cut methane emissions can yield a long-term reduction in the rate of warming, and are therefore highly relevant to the 2050 climate objectives.

Kadri Simson, EU Energy Commissioner, said “I am very happy to see the energy industry taking immediate action on methane emissions. A clear commitment to measure and monitor emissions is an important first step for significantly reducing them and I am proud of what we have achieved together. Today’s signature is the first deliverable under the Commission’s recent methane strategy. There are many more steps to take to cut emissions along the entire value chain and I hope to work closely with all — European and international — partners to reach this goal.”

The Oil and Gas Methane Partnership (OGMP), launched at the UN Climate Summit in 2014, is a Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) initiative led by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the European Commission (EC), and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). OGMP is the only multi-stakeholder partnership working on methane emissions reporting and provides a protocol to help companies systematically manage their methane emissions from oil and gas operations and offers a credible platform to help member companies demonstrate actual reductions to industry stakeholders.

62 companies with assets on five continents representing 30 % of the world’s oil and gas production have already joined the OGMP. The new OGMP2.0 framework is the new gold standard reporting framework that will improve the reporting accuracy and transparency of anthropogenic methane emissions in the oil and gas sector.

Oil and Gas Methane Partnership 2.0

At the core of the effort is a comprehensive measurement-based methane-reporting framework that will make it easier for officials, investors and the public to accurately track and compare performance across companies in ways that have not been possible to this point. As stipulated in the EU methane strategy, the European Commission is planning to elaborate a legislative proposal on compulsory measurement, reporting, and verification for all energy-related methane emissions, building on the OGMP 2.0 framework.

The OGMP 2.0 framework applies to the full oil and gas value chain, not only upstream production, but also midstream transportation and downstream processing and refining — areas with substantial emissions potential that are often left out of reporting today. The goal is to enable the oil and gas industry to realize deep reductions in methane emissions over the next decade in a way that is transparent to civil society and governments.

In order to support the realization of global climate targets, OGMP 2.0 aims to deliver a 45 per cent reduction in the industry’s methane emissions by 2025, and a 60–75 per cent reduction by 2030.

Cost-effective solutions

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), roughly three-quarters of methane emissions could be reduced with the technology that exists today, and close to half at zero net cost. Reducing methane emissions from the energy sector by 90% would shave two tenths of a degree Celsius from the forecasted rise in the planet’s average temperature by 2050.

Reducing fossil methane emissions by 75 per cent can prevent up to 6 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions annually — almost ten per cent of the planet’s 2019 greenhouse gas emissions, including land-use change.

New observatory in the works

UNEP and the European Commission are also finalizing plans to set up an independent International Methane Emissions Observatory (IMEO). IMEO will aggregate and analyse multiple methane emissions data streams, including data reported by OGMP member companies, to accelerate reductions in methane emissions globally. By assisting industry and governments globally in addressing uncertainty related to reported emissions, the Observatory will improve the consistency and credibility of methane emissions data and accelerate mitigation actions.

References:

https://ec.europa.eu/info/news/oil-and-gas-industry-commits-new-framework-monitor-report-and-reduce-methane-emissions-2020-nov-23_en

https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/press-release/oil-and-gas-industry-commits-new-framework-monitor-report-and-reduce#:~:text=The%20new%20OGMP2.0%20framework,core%20operations%20and%20joint%20ventures.

https://www.energylivenews.com/2020/11/25/oil-and-gas-majors-commit-to-report-and-reduce-methane-emissions/