On December 1st, at the world’s capstone climate conference for 2023 - COP28 – currently underway in the United Arab Emirates, the global Oil and Gas Methane Partnership (OGMP) released its signature report on methane emissions, which outlines the commitments made by member companies to reduce their methane output. In this report, NGC - an OGMP member since 2021 - was highlighted as one of 84 companies achieving the “Gold Standard” status for their level of reporting and methane reduction ambitions. This is the second consecutive year that NGC has achieved this recognition.
The OGMP is a multi-stakeholder partnership to improve the accuracy and transparency of methane emissions reporting. The OGMP report – titled “An Eye on Methane: The road to radical transparency - International Methane Emissions Observatory 2023 Report” – reveals that the Gold Standard is conferred upon companies that have demonstrated “an explicit and credible path” to progress through the OGMP’s tiered system for tracking and reporting methane emissions from their operations. Specifically, to reach Gold Standard status of reporting, companies need to announce 2025 absolute reduction or near-zero intensity targets.
The OGMP noted that NGC’s achievement was attained “on the basis of a credible implementation plan”. NGC joined the OGMP in 2021, making the voluntary commitment to set targets for reducing fugitive and vented methane emissions from its business, and report on its performance. This was the latest step taken by the company in its campaign to track and reduce the methane output from its operations. That campaign has included the use of an infrared camera to detect fugitive emissions along pipelines and gas handling infrastructure, and a partnership with Netherlands-based service provider Orbital Eye to detect emissions through satellite imaging. NGC is also represented on the International Gas Union (IGU) Methane experts panel and works in close collaboration with both IGU and OGMP on this global initiative.
Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas (GHG) with 80 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide on a 20-year timescale. It is the primary component of natural gas, and one of the main GHG emissions of the energy sector. Implementing plans and technologies for tracking, measuring and mitigating methane emissions from energy infrastructure is therefore a critical concern of climate action plans.
Commenting on the achievement, NGC President Mark Loquan stated: “NGC continues to be recognised as a climate-conscious energy business, taking deliberate and aggressive steps to reduce its carbon impact. Our methane mitigation campaign is just one prong of a diverse Green Agenda strategy, through which we are making important inroads to support national emissions reduction targets. We are honoured to receive the OGMP acknowledgement of our efforts to date and our intentions moving forward, where methane is concerned. Our focus is now on ensuring we keep the momentum going to achieve our target of 25% reduction in absolute methane emissions from our business by the year 2025. We are well on our way, and intend to accelerate our work programme come 2024.”
The Eye on Methane report can be viewed on the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) website via this link: An Eye on Methane: The road to radical transparency - International Methane Emissions Observatory 2023 Report (unep.org).