The Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI) and nonprofit Carbon Mapper announced they are teaming up to launch a new collaboration aimed at accelerating practical and measurable reductions in methane emissions from the oil and gas industry.
The collaboration will bring together Carbon Mapper’s publicly available satellite-based methane data with OGCI’s industry-led, peer-to-peer engagement model to help operators identify, prioritize, and reduce emissions more quickly and effectively.
“Our collaboration with OGCI will help expand and accelerate methane mitigation actions globally, taking this critical work to new heights. These efforts will reduce waste, improve air quality for communities and workers, and help stabilize our climate—whether it’s technical guidance, policy insight, or reporting support,” Riley Duren, Carbon Mapper CEO, said in a statement.
Through this project, Carbon Mapper will provide methane emissions data over selected geographies from Planet Labs' Tanager-1 satellite along with other insights based on observational data. OGCI will incorporate the data into its peer-to-peer engagement model, which was successfully deployed through its Satellite Monitoring Campaign (SMC), launched in 2021. OGCI said that since then, it has shared data from the SMC with local operators in Iraq, Kazakhstan, Algeria, and Egypt.
“Reducing methane emissions at scale requires data and action. Partnering with Carbon Mapper allows OGCI to enable local operators to turn satellite insights into measurable emissions reductions while sharing best practices across the industry—further extending OGCI’s leadership and impact on methane emissions in the oil and gas industry,” said Bjørn Otto Sverdrup, OGCI executive committee chair.
OGCI said its 12 member companies have reduced their aggregate upstream operated methane emissions by 63% since 2017 and routine flaring by 72% since 2018. The companies represent more than 30% of global oil and gas production, according to OGCI, and include Saudi Aramco, BP, Chevron, CNPC, Eni, Equinor, ExxonMobil, Occidental Petroleum, Petrobras, Repsol, Shell, and TotalEnergies.