For more than a decade, OGCI member companies have been at the forefront of methane emissions abatement at their own operations – developing approaches, technologies and reporting frameworks that are being shared and adopted across the global oil and gas industry, including with signatories to the Oil & Gas Decabonization Charter, launched at COP28.
Reduced upstream methane emissions by
Reduced routine flaring by
Reduced upstream carbon intensity by
“With satellites, aircraft, drones and ground sensors, detecting methane leaks will be unavoidable. We've contributed to enabling some of this progress and there's no longer anywhere for methane to hide.”
Bob Dudley, Chairman, OGCI
Methane is around 27 to 30 times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere over a 100-year period.1 However, because it is shorter-lived in the atmosphere than CO₂, reducing methane emissions delivers near-term climate benefits faster than almost any other intervention. This makes abating methane emissions one of the most effective levers available to slow climate change in the near-term, while CO₂ reductions take effect over the longer-term.
According to the IEA’s Global Methane Tracker 2025, the oil and gas sector accounts for around 23% of all methane emissions attributable to human activities.2 Unlike many other emissions challenges, the technology and operational know-how to reduce these emissions already exists. The task is to deploy it consistently and at scale across the industry.
Abating methane emissions from upstream oil and gas operations has been a strategic priority for OGCI since the group launched in 2014.
OGCI is a CEO-led initiative comprising 12 of the world’s largest oil and gas companies, collectively producing approximately 25% of the world’s oil and gas on an operated basis in 2024.3 For over a decade, OGCI’s member companies have worked to reduce methane emissions from their upstream operations, proving that meaningful and cost-effective abatement is achievable across a wide range of operational contexts.
OGCI’s approach focuses on detection, measurement, reduction, and scale. Technologies including satellites, drones and site sensors help operators detect methane faster.
Accurate measurement enables companies to understand emissions and track progress. OGCI’s member companies reduce those emissions through a strategy that includes leak detection and repair, equipment upgrades and improved operations.
OGCI then shares best practices based on their experience, and technical support across the industry through peer-to-peer engagement and collaboration, enabling other operators to apply proven approaches more quickly. OGCI believes virtually all methane emissions from the industry can and should be avoided and is working to achieve near zero methane emissions from their operated assets by 2030.
“OGCI and its members are actively engaged in sharing knowledge, experience and best practices accumulated over a decade of work reducing emissions at their own oil and gas operations.”
Bjørn Otto Sverdrup, OGCI Executive Committee Chairman and Head of OGDC Secretariat
“At times, we have challenged one another to do more than each of us independently thought was possible, and I think together we’ve made great progress.”
Darren Woods, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Exxon Mobil Corporation
Since 2017, OGCI member companies have reduced their total operated methane emissions by 63% and routine flaring by 72%. In 2024, OGCI members’ aggregate upstream methane intensity reached 0.12%,4 achieving the group’s collective ambition of well below 0.20%, and significantly lower than the global industry average.
For eight consecutive years, OGCI’s aggregate methane intensity has improved year-on-year. As agreed by OGCI’s CEOs in 2026, member companies are now collectively aiming for 0.1%.5
OGCI member companies were the first in the oil and gas industry to agree a collective ambition to reduce operated upstream methane intensity. That ambition was achieved ahead of schedule, demonstrating what’s achievable and setting a standard for the industry to aim for.
The reach of OGCI’s upstream methane intensity ambition, defined as well below 0.20%, continues to grow. It is now widely used across industry and in legislation as a benchmark of best practice.
It underpins the Aiming for Zero Methane Emissions Initiative that OGCI launched in 2022 to encourage companies and solutions providers to employ a zero-tolerance approach to methane emissions.
It is recognized by NGOs, the UN’s Environment Programme and governments as best practice.6 And it is central to the Oil & Gas Decarbonization Charter’s near-zero upstream methane emissions ambition.7
OGCI is committed to engaging more of the oil and gas industry and sharing the knowledge and tools to reduce emissions.
OGCI delivers its methane ambition through a set of targeted initiatives designed to address a specific part of the challenge: from detection and operator support in the field, to knowledge-sharing and gaining industry-wide commitment and action.
Methane is colourless and odourless, which historically made it challenging to detect the emissions. As satellite technology advanced, OGCI saw an opportunity to use satellites to detect methane emissions and then to support and enable operators to address them. To achieve this, OGCI combined the reach of space-based monitoring with peer-to-peer engagement with local operators on the ground.
OGCI’s Satellite Monitoring Campaign (SMC), conducted with GHGSat, uses high-resolution satellite imagery to detect large methane emission events at specific facilities. What makes it distinctive is its confidential peer-to-peer approach after a detection to share data and best practice to help operators identify and abate the methane emissions. Operators act through leak detection and repair, equipment upgrades and improved operations.
OGCI’s approach through the SMC has one of the highest response rates in the industry. The organization has extended SMC support and learnings to signatories of the Oil & Gas Decarbonization Charter.
OGCI’s satellite campaign began with a pilot in Iraq in 2021 covering six oil fields, expanded to Kazakhstan, Algeria and Egypt in 2022–2023, and then moved to a third phase covering more than 30 assets across Central Asia and North Africa.
To date, it has helped operators address emissions with an estimated equivalent of 2 million tonnes of CO₂e.8
OGCI has also published a Satellite Methane Detection Response Playbook providing a practical six-step framework for operators responding to satellite notifications.
OGCI is extending its work in this area through its recent partnership with non-profit Carbon Mapper. This combines publicly available satellite methane data with OGCI’s peer-to-peer engagement to help operators identify and mitigate methane emissions more quickly and effectively.
“Our collaboration with OGCI will help expand and accelerate methane mitigation actions globally, taking this critical work to new heights. These efforts will reduce waste, improve air quality for communities and workers, and help stabilize our climate – whether it’s technical guidance, policy insight or reporting support.”
Riley Duren, Carbon Mapper CEO
For operators in markets where technical capacity is still developing, access to the right knowledge at the right time is critically important to enable methane abatement. In 2025, OGCI launched the Methane Library – a free, publicly available resource that brings together best practice and technical guidance in one searchable place.
The Library contains more than 300 resources structured around four themes: Fundamentals, Strategies, Technologies and Regulations. It draws information from leading international institutions including the UN Environment Programme’s Oil & Gas Methane Partnership 2.0, the International Energy Agency, and the World Bank, alongside regulatory bodies and academic research. Coverage spans detection technologies, measurement approaches, emissions abatement strategies and policy developments.
Recent enhancements, shaped by operator feedback, include most-viewed and recently visited content sections, a related resources function that prioritizes geographically relevant material, tools to email selected resources and sign up for updates, and transparent contributor identification with links to original sources.
The Aiming for Zero Methane Emissions Initiative, launched by OGCI in 2022, calls on the oil and gas industry to treat methane with the same seriousness it already applies to safety, with the goal of reaching zero and doing what is needed to get there.
Signatories to the initiative commit to aim for near zero upstream methane by 2030.
To help local operators and national oil companies identify and prioritize methane emissions mitigation opportunities, OGCI supported the development and wider deployment of Carbon Limits’ Mist tool that enables firms to develop a better understanding of their methane emissions inventory.
The tool is aligned with the UN’s Oil & Gas Methane Partnership reporting.
See how OGCI’s members abated methane emissions and flaring at their operated assets.
See how OGCI’s members abated methane emissions and flaring at their operated assets.
See how OGCI’s members abated methane emissions and flaring at their operated assets.
OGCI helped launch the Oil & Gas Decarbonization Charter at COP28 in 2023, and acts as its secretariat. OGDC now comprises 56 signatories representing approximately 45% of global oil and gas production. OGDC’s core ambitions are closely aligned with OGCI’s: near zero upstream methane and elimination of routine flaring by 2030. In 2025, OGDC adopted OGCI’s reporting framework, using OGCI’s definitions, methodologies and KPIs.
To help scale methane emissions reductions across a broader network of companies, OGCI and its member companies provide tailored technical support and capacity building to OGDC’s signatories through webinars, mentorships and direct peer to peer engagement.
OGCI provides satellite data to OGDC signatories as part of OGCI’s Satellite Monitoring Campaign. Learnings from OGCI’s Methane Library often inform collaboration between OGCI and OGDC members.
"Partnerships are at their best when companies collaborate as well as challenge each other to drive progress in areas of mutual interest. OGCI's leadership in methane emissions reduction is a case in point"
Wael Sawan, CEO, Shell
OGCI supports the implementation of regulations to abate methane emissions from existing and new sources and is working with international institutions, think tanks and organizations to develop programs and tools to monitor and measure methane emissions and identify abatement potential.
OGCI engages regularly with the World Bank’s Global Flaring and Methane Reduction Partnership (GFMR) on how to best use technologies such as satellite monitoring and detection to support countries and companies to abate their methane emissions.
OGCI supported the launch of the GFMR and some of its member companies are among its anchor funders.
After a decade of successful outcomes, OGCI has laid strong foundations for its next chapter: an action-oriented agenda through to 2030.
OGCI’s member companies will continue to report on emissions and strive to improve individual methane performance and measurement. On methane intensity, OGCI’s members are collectively well below 0.20% today and aiming for 0.1% collectively.
OGCI will continue to support broader industry efforts and other stakeholders such as OGDC, which can help accelerate and scale emissions reductions around the world.
The global context of today’s energy landscape highlights the importance of OGCI. Its CEOs remain committed to continuing the journey.
Explore our resources, latest data, and key initiatives in methane abatement.
