The Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI), is an international industry-led organization which includes 12 member companies from the oil and gas industry: BP,

Chevron Chevron (often relating to V-shaped patterns) may refer to: Science and technology * Chevron (aerospace), sawtooth patterns on some jet engines * Chevron (anatomy), a bone * '' Eulithis testata'', a moth * Chevron (geology), a fold in rock ...

CNPC The China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) () is a major national oil and gas corporation of China and one of the largest integrated energy groups in the world. Its headquarters are in Dongcheng District, Beijing. CNPC was ranked fourth ...

, Eni,

Equinor Equinor ASA (formerly Statoil and StatoilHydro) is a Norwegian state-owned multinational energy company headquartered in Stavanger. It is primarily a petroleum company, operating in 36 countries with additional investments in renewable energy. I ...

ExxonMobil ExxonMobil Corporation (commonly shortened to Exxon) is an American multinational oil and gas corporation headquartered in Irving, Texas. It is the largest direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, and was formed on November 30, ...

, Occidental,

Petrobras Petróleo Brasileiro S.A., better known by the portmanteau Petrobras (), is a state owned enterprise, state-owned Brazilian multinational corporation in the petroleum industry headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The company's name transla ...

Repsol Repsol S.A.
El Nuevo Herald, 2012-05-31Originally an init ...

Saudi Aramco Saudi Aramco ( ar, أرامكو السعودية '), officially the Saudi Arabian Oil Company (formerly Arabian-American Oil Company) or simply Aramco, is a Saudi Arabian public petroleum and natural gas company based in Dhahran. , it is one of ...

Shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses ** Thin-shell structure Science Biology * Seashell, a hard o ...

and

TotalEnergies TotalEnergies SE is a French Multinational corporation, multinational integrated energy and List of oil exploration and production companies, petroleum company founded in 1924 and one of the seven Big Oil, supermajor oil companies. Its businesses ...

represent over "30% of global operated oil and gas production." It was established in 2014 and has a mandate to work together to "accelerate the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions" in full support of the

Paris Agreement The Paris Agreement (french: Accord de Paris), often referred to as the Paris Accords or the Paris Climate Accords, is an international treaty on climate change. Adopted in 2015, the agreement covers climate change mitigation, Climate change a ...

and its aims." Their mandate says that they will "seek actions" to "accelerate and participate in the energy transition." On November 4, 2016 OGCI announced the creation of the OGCI Climate Investments fund which will invest $1 billion over 10 years in companies or projects that reduce "

methane emissions Increasing methane emissions are a major contributor to the rising concentration of greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere, and are responsible for up to one-third of near-term global heating. During 2019, about 60% (360 million tons) of methane r ...

from gas production", on projects or "technologies to capture and either use or store carbon emissions", as well as on energy efficiency. The fund invests in reducing the

carbon footprint A carbon footprint is the total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by an individual, event, organization, service, place or product, expressed as carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e). Greenhouse gases, including the carbon-containing gases carbo ...

of the oil and gas industry and other emitting sectors, rather than in renewable energy. Former BP CEO

Bob Dudley Robert Warren Dudley (born September 14, 1955) is an American-born businessman who is a former group chief executive of BP. He had been president and chief executive of TNK-BP and on June 18, 2010, was assigned to be BP executive in charge of th ...

is the chair of the OGCI CEO steering committee and Bjørn Otto Sverdrup is the chair of the OGCI executive committee. Pratima Rangarajan is the CEO of OGCI Climate Investments.

Background

The industry-led Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI) was created in 2014 by CEOs of the world's largest energy companies to "seek action" to support the Paris Agreement. The member companies which include BP,

, Eni,

, Occidental,

Pemex Pemex (a portmanteau of Petróleos Mexicanos, which translates to ''Mexican Petroleum'' in English; ) is the Mexican state-owned petroleum company managed and operated by the Mexican government. It was formed in 1938 by nationalization and expr ...

Repsol Repsol S.A.
El Nuevo Herald, 2012-05-31Originally an init ...

and Total, represent over "32% of global operated oil and gas production." As part of their initiative to "improve their environmental reputation" the OGCI announced at an event held in London, that they would be investing $1bn over the next decade in "innovative low emissions technologies". The announcement, which was planned to "coincide" with the

Paris agreement The Paris Agreement (french: Accord de Paris), often referred to as the Paris Accords or the Paris Climate Accords, is an international treaty on climate change. Adopted in 2015, the agreement covers climate change mitigation, Climate change a ...

which came into effect on the same day. ''The Telegraph'' had predicted that the OGCI could face "fierce scrutiny and accusations of "

greenwashing Greenwashing (a compound word modeled on "whitewash"), also called "green sheen", is a form of advertising or marketing spin in which green PR and green marketing are deceptively used to persuade the public that an organization's products, aims ...

" for the announcement which some environmentalists saying that "the 'big oil' business model is fundamentally incompatible with avoiding dangerous climate change." ''The Telegraph'' said that OGCI chair and BP CEO

makes more than 1 billion a year. On September 22, 2019, the OGCI hosted an "invitation-only forum" on the "sidelines" of the September 23, climate action summit organized by the UN secretary general,

António Guterres António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres ( , ; born 30 April 1949) is a Portuguese politician and diplomat. Since 2017, he has served as secretary-general of the United Nations, the ninth person to hold this title. A member of the Portuguese Socia ...

, which was held in New York. The day before the UN "climate action summit"—which included " rld leaders, academics, government representatives and environmentalists" came together for The UN "climate action summit"—OGCI oil and gas executives held their own "closed high-level discussion" with key stakeholders. According to ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', critics said that the OGCI was "attempt ngto influence negotiations in favour of fossil fuel companies." On September 23, the OGCI held their formal forum at the

Morgan Library and Museum The Morgan Library & Museum, formerly the Pierpont Morgan Library, is a museum and research library in the Murray Hill neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It is situated at 225 Madison Avenue, between 36th Street to the south and 37th S ...

, New York.

Targets

In 2017, OGCI members developed a baseline of "aggregated upstream oil and gas operations emissions" of 24 kg CO2e/boe.

Methane intensity

In 2018, OGCI set a methane intensity target. In 2018, member companies had "reduced collective methane intensity by 9%" and was "on track to meet the 2025 target of below 0.25%."

Carbon intensity

At their September 2019 forum, OGCI said that they were "working on a carbon intensity target to reduce by 2025 the collective average carbon intensity of member companies' aggregated upstream oil and gas operations." Among the actions to meet their targets of reducing carbon intensity, the OGCI listed "improving energy efficiency, minimizing flaring, upgrading facilities and co-generating electricity and useful heat."

Carbon pricing

Member companies pledged to "support policies that attribute an explicit or implicit value to carbon" as the "one of the most cost-efficient ways to achieve the low carbon transition as early as possible" at their September 2019 forum.

Reduce flaring

By October 2019, the fossil-fuel executives said that until recently they had been making progress in cutting back on

routine flaring Routine flaring, also known as production flaring, is a method and current practice of disposing of large unwanted amounts of associated petroleum gas (APG) during crude oil extraction. The gas is first separated from the liquids and solids d ...

, where vast amounts of natural gas are burned off as a waste "by-product" during the extraction of crude oil. Oil extraction companies focus on drilling and pumping oil which is highly lucrative, but the less-valuable gas accompanying the oil is more difficult to transport to consumers. Production growth has "far outpaced pipeline construction" during the boom in the Permian and Bakken oil fields. Both

gas flaring A gas flare, alternatively known as a flare stack, flare boom, ground flare, or flare pit is a gas combustion device used in places such as petroleum refineries, chemical plants and natural gas processing plants, oil or gas extraction sites hav ...

and

gas venting Gas venting, more specifically known as natural-gas venting or methane venting, is the intentional and controlled release of gases containing alkane hydrocarbons - predominately methane - into earth's atmosphere. It is a widely used method fo ...

waste a primary energy resource and release potent greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Regulation of the amount of each type of waste varies from one jurisdiction to another. Instances also occur where companies have access to transport capacity, but are allowed to flare rather than pay pipeline costs.

Investments

The OGCI Climate Investments fund will not invest in renewables. It will focus on action that will reduce "methane emissions from gas production" and on "technologies to capture and either use or store carbon emissions. At their New York September 2019 forum, OGCI said that they had " 15 investments in its portfolio," which includes Kelvin, SeekOps, Boston Metal, 75F, Norsepower, and XL. OGCI Climate Investments focus on "innovative companies that are ready to be commercialized" in collaboration with "global co-investors and industrials to achieve speed and scale."

Wabash Valley Resources

On May 20, 2019 OGCI announced their funding support of the

Terre Haute, Indiana Terre Haute ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Vigo County, Indiana, United States, about 5 miles east of the state's western border with Illinois. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 60,785 and its metropolitan area had a ...

-based Wabash Valley Resources that will "capture and sequester 1.5-1.75 million tons of CO2 annually from Wabash Valley Resources co-located ammonia plant" making it "the largest

carbon sequestration Carbon sequestration is the process of storing carbon in a carbon pool. Carbon dioxide () is naturally captured from the atmosphere through biological, chemical, and physical processes. These changes can be accelerated through changes in land ...

project in the United States".

SeekOps

In September 2019, OGCI Climate Investments and Equinor Technology Ventures provided funding for SeekOps, which is a "technology spinoff NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory". SeekOps uses "integrated drone-based systems" capable of detect ng localiz ng and "quanify ngnatural gas emissions.

Initiatives

In September 2019, OGCI announced a KickStarter campaign to increase the "carbon capture, use and storage (CCUS)" globally to "achieve

net zero Carbon neutrality is a state of net-zero carbon dioxide emissions. This can be achieved by balancing emissions of carbon dioxide with its removal (often through carbon offsetting) or by eliminating emissions from society (the transition to the " ...

emissions."

External links

* https://ogci.com

References

{{reflist, 30em Petroleum industry