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Cutting Oil and Gas Sector Methane Emissions

Methane has over 80x more climate warming potency than carbon dioxide over a twenty year period but has been left out of mainstream climate action and regulation conversations until recently. Massive plumes of methane from oil and gas operations went undetected not only because they are invisible and odorless – but because the industry was allowed to self-report emissions for decades.

RMI is increasing oil and gas methane emissions visibility through an evolving network of satellites and sensors and transforming that visibility into actions government and industry leaders can take to cut methane emissions under their control.

Emissions Visibility Tools

RMI has transformed raw data from methane detection satellites and sensors into interactive analytical tools that allow users to understand precisely where emissions are coming from in oil and gas industry operations. That level of transparency enables more targeted policy, industry strategies, and capital investment to mitigate methane emissions in line with a safer climate future.

TOOL

OCI+
The OCI⁺ quantifies and compares greenhouse gas emissions intensities from global oil and gas assets. Use this web tool’s interactive features to see where methane and carbon dioxide are emitted and investigate ways to reduce energy waste and the life-cycle emissions intensities of production, refining and petrochemical processing, storage, transport, and end uses.
RESOURCE

Marginal Wells Dashboard
Marginal wells produce less than 5 percent of the United States' oil and gas — yet they account for 75 percent of America’s currently producing wells. This tool shows which US regions and counties have the highest counts of marginal and submarginal wells.
RESOURCE

Methane Transparency
Continually improving our methane detection capabilities is essential to stop this super-pollutant with 80 times more climate warming potency than carbon dioxide.

Initiatives

Oil & Gas Solutions Initiative

Oil & Gas Solutions Initiative

The scientific consensus is clear: swift and decisive action is needed to stabilize the planet at 1.5oC. This calls for immediate reductions in oil and gas sector greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, including methane—an extremely potent GHG that constitutes a major share of oil and gas industry emissions. To meet this critical climate goal, RMI is ingesting and analyzing timely, transparent, and trusted data to catalyze climate-informed decisions by companies, investors, policymakers, NGOs, and consumers.

Climate Trace

Climate Trace

Climate TRACE monitors human-caused GHG emissions using cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, novel modeling, and satellite image processing—bringing unprecedented transparency to global carbon pollution. Insights curated from Climate TRACE make it possible for anyone, anywhere, to make better decisions to mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change.

Carbon Mapper

Carbon Mapper

Carbon Mapper is a first-of-its-kind satellite enterprise that is a consortium of public, private, philanthropic, and nonprofit organizations including RMI.

MiQ

MiQ

MiQ has pioneered the use of independently certified gas (ICG) to provide the data needed to drive change on global methane emissions.

Resources

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