Big Oil pledges to slash potent greenhouse gas emission

LONDON: A group of the world’s top oil and gas companies pledged to slash emissions of a potent greenhouse gas by a fifth by 2025 in an effort to battle climate change.

The Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI), which US giants Exxon Mobil and Chevron joined recently, committed to cutting methane emissions to an intensity of 0.25 per cent of the group’s total fossil fuel production, it said in a statement. Such a reduction would equate to 350,000 tonnes of methane annually. It compares with a baseline intensity of 0.32 per cent in 2017, excluding new members.

The pledge, which could be lowered further to 0.20 per cent intensity, echoes targets set individually by members BP, Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon to reduce methane emissions.

“Our aim is to work towards near zero methane emissions from the full gas value chain in support of achieving the goals of the Paris (Climate) Agreement,” the heads of the OGCI members said in a statement, referring to an international agreement aimed at limiting global warming.

The OGCI today represents nearly a third of global oil and gas production. It also includes BP, Royal Dutch Shell, France’s Total as well as national oil companies of China, Mexico, Brazil and Saudi Arabia.

The Us-based Environment Defense Fund (EDF), a nongovernmental organisation, said OGCI needs to adopt more, and transparent, ways of measuring methane emissions to meet the target. “It will be critical now for companies to follow through on their commitment, reporting on progress with actual measured emissions, fully and publicly disclosed,” EDF President Fred Krupp said in a statement.

— Reuters