The race to drive down methane emissions is still on. Commitments to curb operational emissions have proved durable under public and regulatory scrutiny. Industries have a responsibility to clean up waste, eliminate methane leaks, and support energy security.
Low methane emissions products will be advantaged in the next decade. As domestic gas buyers face pressure to meaningfully reduce methane emissions across their supply chain, international gas buyers are establishing voluntary and regulatory measures to differentiate low-leakage gas.
Low-leakage gas also gives producers access to the international gas markets of the future where low emissions products are increasingly at an advantage. Over the coming years, the EU’s methane regulation will require importers to report the methane intensity at the gas production site. Japan and Korea have established the Coalition for LNG Emission Abatement toward Net-zero (CLEAN) as a public-private program to increase methane visibility and mitigation across the LNG supply chain. Canada and Mexico recently signed a joint action plan to strengthen cooperation in transparency and accountability for emissions reductions, especially methane in the natural gas supply chain. The United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, France, Canada, Kazakhstan, and Norway signed a declaration to support low-leakage gas market development at COP30.
For US oil and gas companies, global markets are more important than ever. More gas will be sold on global markets as US LNG export capacity grows, tying US producers to the needs of international buyers. To be competitive on global markets, US companies will need to ensure that they are responsible operators supplying low-leakage gas production and can vie for market share across the world. With a global reputation at stake, it is important for US companies to share best practices through the OGDC and adopt reporting protocols such as OGMP 2.0 to show that they are a good global neighbor.
Over the next decade, financial institutions will still have a responsibility to manage risk and provide the services that their clients need. By staying connected to the commercial and competitive priorities of their clients — both producers and purchasers of gas — they will be able to provide competitive financial services themselves. When capital is needed for methane abatement projects, producers and their financiers can use tools such as the debt structuring guidelines released by the Methane Finance Working Group.
Solutions to scale low methane leakage gas are an immediate opportunity to slash emissions and a necessary steppingstone to a broader energy transition. Low-leakage gas can help ensure that any gas used today has near-zero methane leakage, demonstrated by robust MMRV, and that actors across the value chain are held accountable to that standard.