BP and Environmental Defense Fund team up to reduce methane emissions

BP and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) have announced a three-year strategic commitment to advance technologies and practices to reduce methane emissions from the global oil and gas supply chain.

The agreement enables joint collaboration on projects that test technologies and emerging strategies to continue to improve methane management. Working with universities and third party experts, the initiative has the potential for broad applicability to help the entire oil and gas industry significantly reduce this potent greenhouse gas.

‘We've made great progress driving down emissions across our own [BP] business, including meeting our industry-leading methane intensity target of 0.2%, but there is much more work to do and partnering with EDF will help us develop and share best practices,’ commented Bernard Looney, BP's Upstream Chief Executive. 

‘The scale of the methane challenge is enormous, but so is the opportunity. Whether natural gas can play a constructive role in the energy transition depends on aggressive measures to reduce emissions that include methane,’ said Fred Krupp, EDF President.

Key initiatives for the new methane collaborative will focus on three areas in 2019 – advancing technology breakthroughs, leveraging digital technologies and expanding methane management.

• BP and EDF are both signatories the Methane guiding principles. Developed collaboratively by a coalition of industry, international institutions, non-governmental organisations and academics, the Principles focus on continually reducing methane emissions; advancing strong performance across gas value chains; improving accuracy of methane emissions data; advocating sound policies and regulations on methane emissions; and increasing transparency. First signed in November 2017 by eight companies; since then a further 10 companies have become signatories, and 10 organisations have pledged their support to the Principles, including the Energy Institute.