Why it’s important
Methane is a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, especially in the first decades after its release into the atmosphere.
But it’s much shorter lived, so it stays in the atmosphere for much less time than carbon dioxide. This means there’s an opportunity to deliver a significant near-term reduction in the pace of global warming by urgently reducing methane emissions now.
According to the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Global Methane Tracker 2023, the concentration of methane in the atmosphere from all human activities is already more than double pre-industrial levels. It now accounts for around 30% of the global warming the world is currently experiencing.
The energy sector, including oil, natural gas, coal and bioenergy, accounts for nearly 40% of methane emissions from human activity. Other sources of emissions include agriculture and landfills.
Methane emissions originating from venting, fugitives and flaring across the global oil and gas industry are estimated to amount to over 2.3 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2023, according to the IEA’s Global Methane Tracker. This is nearly half of the industry’s Scope 1 and 2 emissions of 5.1 Gt carbon dioxide equivalent.
Thanks to a scale up of technologies that find and stop leaks over the past decade and by avoiding non-emergency flaring and venting, methane emissions in the oil and gas industry can now be tackled in many locations at relatively low or minimal cost.
Measuring methane emissions from oil and gas
OGCI members share an ambition to achieve near zero methane emissions from operated oil and gas assets and zero upstream routine flaring by 2030. To achieve these aims, OGCI believes that enhanced monitoring and measurement of methane could support further emission reduction opportunities, while improving emissions data quality and transparency.
Measuring methane emissions is critically important to help prioritize mitigation activities. Unlike CO2 emissions sources, which tend to be concentrated at single points in oil and gas operations, the sources of methane emissions are dispersed.
Methane emissions have typically been assessed and reported using standard emission factors based on aggregating available global data and data from specific basins.
Newer technologies, including satellites, drones and sensors, make it easier to detect and quantify methane emissions. OGCI’s member companies are using these technologies to complement existing emissions factor-based inventories and improve the accuracy.
Improving accuracy can include direct measurement of methane emissions at the site level, employing technologies such as drone, aircraft, or continuous mounted monitoring solutions.
This enables operators to visualize and quantify emissions directly from their assets, reducing estimation where possible. Many of these techniques take a snapshot over a site or area, and develop an emissions rate based on meteorological factors including windspeed, and other parameters such as background methane concentration.
Although there are uncertainties associated with the calculated emission rates, measurement can help companies better understand their emissions, and is continuing to improve. It is anticipated that the use of general emission factors will diminish as more methane measurements are integrated into emissions inventories.
OGCI’s member companies are working, individually and collectively, to integrate more methane measurement.
Ten OGCI member companies are now part of the UN Environment Programme’s Oil and Gas Methane Partnership 2.0 (OGMP 2.0). OGMP 2.0 is a comprehensive, measurement-based reporting framework for the oil and gas industry aiming to improve the accuracy and transparency of methane emissions reporting to aid methane mitigation actions.
Other leadership programmes seeking to improve measurement, monitoring, reporting and verification of methane emissions, include GTI Energy’s Veritas program, MiQ, Project Canary and The Environmental Partnership.
At the collective level, OGCI has supported the broader industry in deploying methane detection technologies. Through its Satellite Monitoring Campaign (SMC), OGCI has helped demonstrate the use of satellites in detecting methane emissions so they can be located and abated.
OGCI is also working to pilot aircraft monitoring, which has similar objectives to the SMC. OGCI’s work will continue as measurement technologies evolve.
Deploying new technologies
New technologies, including monitoring with satellites, drones and sensors, make it easier to detect and better quantify methane emissions. These technologies allow the oil and gas industry to address methane emissions in a more meaningful way.
An OGCI pilot programme concluded in 2022 successfully demonstrated the use of satellite technology to detect and monitor methane emissions at specific sites in Iraq. The program – known as the Satellite Monitoring Campaign – is now in its third phase and has been extended to more countries and operators including in Central Asia, North Africa and South America.
In 2023, the UN launched its Methane Alert and Response System (MARS) to allow UNEP to corroborate emissions reported by companies and characterize changes over time.
Some companies are also running more frequent Leak Detection and Repair campaigns to reduce fugitive emissions, improving flare efficiency, and introducing artificial intelligence to avoid emergency venting of methane.
OGCI and methane
Reducing methane emissions has been a top priority for OGCI since the group launched in 2014 and OGCI supports the implementation of regulations tackling methane emissions reduction of new and existing sources.
OGCI’s member companies have reduced their own upstream methane emissions, achieving an aggregate reduction in their methane intensity in 2021 – four years early while continuing to reduce flaring.
OGCI’s member companies have reduced their aggregate upstream operated methane intensity by 62% since 2017 to 0.12%. Since 2017, these actions have reduced total upstream methane emissions by 63% and decreased routine flaring upstream by 72%.
OGCI is also engaging with non-members throughout the industry to support further methane emissions reductions.
In 2022, OGCI launched the Aiming for Zero Methane Emissions Initiative to encourage the entire oil and gas industry to eliminate its methane footprint by 2030.
Support for the initiative since its launch has grown quickly and now numbers around 100 companies, including private and state-run energy companies, service firms and consultancies.
To improve identification of methane emissions sources, better understand their frequency and persistence, OGCI is working with the Methane Guiding Principles and others to establish common industry practices to deploy technologies effectively in specific settings both onshore and offshore.
OGCI has supported Methane Science Studies, overseen by the government-led Climate and Clean Air Coalition, to increase scientific knowledge and understanding of methane emissions from different types of sites across the global oil and gas industry.
Since 2020, OGCI has supported the World Bank’s Global Gas Flaring Explorer platform to help deliver improved transparency in flaring data from satellites.
And OGCI members support reducing and seeking to eliminate routine flaring at company operations by 2030.
