U.S. oil firms ExxonMobil, Chevron, Occidental Petroleum are set to join the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI), an initiative representing 13 of the world’s largest oil and gas producers working on solutions to mitigate the risks of climate change.
OGCI was established following the 2014 World Economic Forum and formally launched at the United Nations Climate Summit the same year. Members include BP, CNPC, Eni, Equinor, Pemex, Petrobras, Repsol, Royal Dutch Shell, Saudi Aramco, and Total.
The three new companies will become official members of OGCI as of September 24, 2018. Each will commit $100 million dollars to the OGCI Climate Investments fund.
OGCI is a CEO-led, voluntary, oil and gas industry initiative that aims to catalyze practical action on climate change through best practice sharing and collaboration.
The OGCI said that the three new members represented 5% of global oil and gas production.
“With these additions, OGCI members now represent around 30% of global oil and gas production and supply close to 20% of global primary energy consumption. The 13 member companies represent regions including China, the Middle East, Latin America, Europe and now the United States, widening OGCI’s global reach and making its members’ collaborative effort in support of the Paris Agreement, a significant global action,” the OGCI said.
Collective effort to address climate change
In a joint statement, the heads of the OGCI member companies said: “Over the past four years, OGCI has brought together international and national oil and gas companies to accelerate the deployment of concrete solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Our ambitions increase each year and as we welcome three new member companies, we will continue to build momentum and strengthen our collective reach and impact to deliver practical action on climate change.”
Michael Wirth , Chairman and CEO of Chevron Corporation, said: “We are pleased to be joining OGCI to work constructively on addressing the risks of climate change.”
“It will take the collective efforts of many in the energy industry and society to develop scalable, affordable solutions that will be needed to address the risks of climate change,” said Darren Woods, Chairman, and Chief Executive officer of ExxonMobil. “Our mission is to supply energy for modern life and improve living standards around the world while minimizing impacts on the environment. This dual challenge is one of the most important issues facing society and our company.”
As part of the initiative, ExxonMobil said it would expand its investment in research and development of long-term solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as well as partnerships and multi-stakeholder initiatives that will pursue lower-emission technologies, the company said on Thursday.
ExxonMobil has said it has invested billions of dollars in researching and developing lower-emission solutions, including carbon capture and storage technology, next-generation biofuels, cogeneration, and more efficient manufacturing processes.
Earlier this year, ExxonMobil announced initiatives to lower greenhouse gas emissions associated with its operations by 2020, including reducing methane emissions 15 percent and flaring by 25 percent. Since 2000, ExxonMobil has spent more than $9 billion to develop and deploy higher-efficiency and lower-emission energy solutions across its operations, the U.S. oil major said on Thursday.
CO2 EOR
“Industry innovation and collaboration have a critical role to play in addressing climate change, and Occidental is excited to join OGCI’s efforts to create a lower-emissions world,” said Occidental President and CEO Vicki Hollub . “Occidental is advancing carbon dioxide enhanced oil recovery (CO2 EOR) as a form of carbon capture, utilization and sequestration (CCUS). We are the industry leader in this technology, which has the potential to help achieve global goals for reducing emissions and welcome the opportunity to work with OGCI to contribute to this critical effort.”
The OGCI will hold its annual meeting with stakeholders in New York next week during Climate Week.
Indian giant leaves OGCI
While the three U.S. firms have finally decided to join the initiative established four years ago, one member has reportedly left the OGCI. According to a report by Quartz, India’s Reliance Petroleum has quit the coalition.
The Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI), made up of CEOs of ten major oil and gas companies, in November 2016, announced an investment of $1 billion over ten years , to develop and accelerate the commercial deployment of innovative low emissions technologies.
Offshore Energy Today Staff