OGCI campaign helps NOCs and JV partners tackle methane emissions

• Results from the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative’s latest Satellite Monitoring Campaign (SMC) show that a systematic effort to raise awareness, deploy new technologies and engagement can support local operators mitigate methane emissions at scale. 
• OGCI’s 2022-2023 campaign over Algeria, Kazakhstan and Egypt has already helped local operators eliminate methane emissions, according to a new report. 
• OGCI is continuing to engage through the campaign with the local operators in the three countries to help identify solutions to mitigate the remaining persistent emissions sources.  

The Oil and Gas Climate Initiative’s Satellite Monitoring Campaign (SMC) has helped local operators, including national oil companies and partners, to identify and mitigate methane emissions from their oil and gas operations and work is ongoing to support further reductions, a report published today shows. 

In this latest phase of OGCI’s campaign, the group shared data, insights and best practice with operators of assets in Algeria, Kazakhstan and Egypt. This helped the operators to eliminate methane plumes in Algeria and Kazakhstan with a combined average rate of 3,200 kilograms an hour, the report said. 

If these plumes were from continuously emitting sources and were not abated, they could amount to an estimated equivalent of around 1 million tonnes of carbon dioxide over the course of one yearⁱ. 

OGCI is continuing to engage through the campaign with the local operators to help identify solutions to mitigate the remaining persistent emissions sources.  

Bjørn Otto Sverdrup, OGCI Executive Committee Chair said:

“Eliminating methane emissions from oil and gas operations around the world is one of the most impactful climate actions to help support and advance the ambitions of the Paris Agreement. 

This latest stage of OGCI’s satellite monitoring campaign demonstrates how a systematic effort to raise awareness, deploy new technologies and engagement can support local operators, including national oil companies and joint-venture partners, in their efforts to remove methane emissions at scale.”

Bjørn Otto Sverdrup, Oil and Gas Climate Initiative Executive Committee Chair

Blair Blackwell, Chevron Lower Carbon Advisor, said:

“OGCI’s SMC is a model that works to help accelerate action on methane emissions. In Kazakhstan we’ve seen that the campaign has facilitated best practice sharing and increased engagement with local operators – building capabilities and sharing expertise and solutions more broadly throughout the industry to enable reductions of methane emissions.”

Blair Blackwell, Chevron Lower Carbon Advisor

The estimated cost of detecting the methane emissions already eliminated in this phase of the SMC came in below $2 per tonne of CO₂e, the report said.  

A significant and rapid reduction in methane emissions has been a top priority for OGCI since the CEO-led group of 12 of the world’s leading energy companies was formed in 2014. 

Since 2017, OGCI’s member companies have collectively halved upstream methane emissions and cut flaring by 45% at their own operations through activities including reducing leaks and venting, and repairing and upgrading key infrastructure.  

Alongside the SMC, OGCI is working to increase and refine monitoring and detection techniques while improving data gathering platforms so they are more accessible. OGCI is also leading efforts through its Aiming for Zero initiative to change the industry’s mindset to a zero tolerance for methane emissions.  

Now in its fourth year, OGCI’s SMC collects high-resolution data on large-magnitude methane plumes. It then uses confidential engagement with local operators to help them identify and address the sources of the emissions by sharing established knowledge, expertise and best practice to accelerate the reductions.  

In this latest phase of the campaign, greenhouse gas monitoring company GHGSat, a Climate Investment portfolio company, performed over 530 high-resolution observations during one year over a total of 18 pre-selected sites, using its own satellites and public satellite data. 

The areas included oil- and gas- producing assets operated by OGCI members and non-members. 

The campaign provided the data to local operators to further identify and characterize previously unknown persistent methane emissions sources. 

Incomplete combustion from burning pits, gathering pipeline emissions, equipment venting and storage tank venting comprised the top four sources of methane emissions in the current campaign, the report said. 

Based on the results of this latest phase of the SMC and feedback from participants, OGCI has extended the campaign to more countries and operators.  

Learn more about OGCI’s work to reduce methane emissions here 

Background 

• Methane emissions from venting, fugitives and flaring comprise around 2 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent a year – almost half the oil and gas industry’s total Scope 1 and 2 emissions, according to the International Energy Agency.  
• While methane is a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, it can be tackled more quickly and cost effectively than CO₂. Methane is also shorter lived, so reductions have a faster impact on the climate.  
• OGCI’s satellite campaign is complemented by work with the World Bank and the Payne Institute in the US to launch a more accessible platform on global gas flaring data. 
• The Aiming for Zero Methane Emissions Initiative that OGCI launched in 2022 has already been endorsed by around 100 companies, including NOCs, and its ambitions have become an industry standard. 

OGCI 

• OGCI is a CEO-led initiative comprised of 12 of the world’s leading oil and gas companies. 
• It aims to lead the oil and gas industry’s response to climate change and accelerate action towards a net zero emissions future consistent with the Paris Agreement. 
• Over the past decade OGCI members have demonstrated the essential role that oil and gas companies can play in delivering a net zero future.  
• Since 2017, our members have collectively halved methane emissions, cut flaring by 45%, invested $65 billion in low-carbon technologies, including renewables, CCUS and direct air capture, biofuels and hydrogen, and shared best practices across the industry and other sectors to accelerate decarbonization.  
• OGCI’s members are Aramco, bp, Chevron, CNPC, Eni, Equinor, ExxonMobil, Oxy, Petrobras, Repsol, Shell and TotalEnergies.  
• Read more about OGCI’s progress in our annual Progress Report