The Oil & Gas Climate Initiative have released their research into industry carbon dioxide and methane emissions reductions, signaling positive progress

12 November 2020

Industry collective invests over a billion dollars into emissions reductions technologies

The Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI) has released its findings on the aggregate performance data of emissions in the upstream sector for 2019, indicating strong and consistent progress across the methane and carbon intensive sectors. OGCI is a collective of 12 NOCs, IOCs and oil majors, which represent more than 20% of global oil and gas production, who have aligned their actions to combat the intensity of the industry emissions.

OGCI began using a baseline for carbon dioxide emissions of 23kg of CO2 per barrel of oil equivalent in 2017, with the intent to reduce the figure by one-fifth to between 20-21kg CO2/boe by 2025. They largely achieved this goal by already reaching 21.1kg CO2/boe by 2019.

In doing so, the initiative has some significant and tangible results noting, “the collective upstream methane and carbon intensity of member companies’ aggregated upstream oil and gas operations stand at 0.23% and 21.1 kg CO2/boe respectively.”

Similarly, the methane-intensity targets were to lower the methane from 0.30% in 2017, 0.25% in 2018 and achieving this moved to 0.23% in 2019 – the next target is to dip below 0.20% by 2025.

According to the OGCI, the figures have been developed to reflect specific industry efforts toward emissions reductions: “The intensity baseline, target and ambition are presented as percentage figures, which represent the volume of methane emissions for the upstream gas and oil sector as a percentage of the volume of the total gas marketed for the same upstream sector.”

Methane is a particularly worrisome gas that is far more damaging to the atmosphere than carbon, “trapping 80-times more heat than carbon dioxide over 20 years after its release”. This is an important factor as reductions in methane intensity can have immediate gains toward achieving climate goals. Carbon dioxide emissions are not as harmful as methane, but are in exceptional abundance due to the range of greenhouse gas emitting sources.

A $1 billion fund was set-up by the OGCI to invest in companies developing solutions to mitigate the impact GHGs have on the environment, utilising the broad institutional knowledge of the supermajors to fund the most impactful solutions. In order to make these reductions, an array of technologies have been employed to increase efficiencies and reduce the environmental strain on O&G production.

Twenty companies with specific answers to emissions-related problems have been granted funding to make the greatest possible impact to oil and gas emissions across the value chain. Among the advanced technologies deployed are GHGSat’s data monitoring equipment that can analyse methane emissions covering any facility in the world. There is also QEnergy’s remote power solutions that displace methane emissions at source from high-emitting pneumatic devices. Or, on the carbon dioxide side, XL Fleet or Norsepower’s systems that improve fuel consumption and emissions on fleet vehicles and large ships, respectively.

Additionally, the OGCI is backing a series of Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) companies around the world, a technology which the IEA believes is essential in order to reach the goal of a net-zero society by 2050.

It is the belief of the Energy Council that by achieving their goals ahead of time, and seeking to implement their reductions as a collective, the OGCI has the capacity to make some of the most significant reductions to global emissions. If the Oil & Gas Climate Initiative can lead the efforts to shift behaviours and take responsibility for emissions, it places the onus on other high-emitting industries to follow suit in embracing a more sustainable future.