Aramco, CNPC, Exxon and others set first joint carbon target

A group of leading oil companies, including Saudi Aramco, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and ExxonMobil, have set goals to cut their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as a proportion of production.

The latest move comes due to increasing pressure on the oil and gas sector’s climate change, Reuters reported.

However, the target set by the 12 members of the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI), a coalition of global energy companies, mean that absolute GHG emissions can rise with an increase in production.

In September 2018, OGCI declared its first methane reduction objective, cutting average methane intensity by at least 20% and emissions levels by one third by 2025.

The OGCI includes BP, Equinor, ExxonMobil, Occidental Petroleum, Chevron, CNPC, Eni, Repsol, Saudi Aramco, Shell, Total and Petrobras.

More than 30% of the oil and gas produced in the world is the output of these companies.

The news agency quoted OGCI Chairman and former BP CEO Bob Dudley as saying: “It is a significant milestone, it is not the end of the work, it is a near term target, and we’ll keep calibrating as we go forward.”

Dudley said that the 12 companies agreed on a common methodology to calculate the intensity of carbon so that the targets could also be extended to other sectors such as LNG and refining in the near term.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is ‘a necessity, not an option’, says the UK’s Committee on Climate Change (CCC), an independent advisory body to the UK Government.

In May, UK industry regulator Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) called for the UK offshore industry to help the government achieve net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions target by 2050.

BP announced in February that it will achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions ‘by 2050 or sooner’ and revealed several changes it will make to accomplish this.

In the same month, a senior executive at British-Dutch oil and gas giant Royal Dutch Shell (Shell) reportedly said that the company will not ‘get into an arms race’ with BP’s net-zero target.