Eni recommits to slashing emissions in its first methane report

Italy’s energy giant Eni has published its first report dealing with methane emissions aiming to reaffirm its promise to reduce methane slip and increase transparency.

The Methane Report 2024 recognizes the key role that reducing methane emissions – identified in the report as the second most important greenhouse gas (GHG) contributor to climate change – within the oil and gas sector can play in the fight against climate change. Actions to reduce methane emissions across operations are listed, as well as the means the company uses to help industry partners do the same.

Claudio Descalzi, CEO of Eni, noted: “We are proud to publish the Methane Report 2024, which highlights Eni’s role as a pioneer in the implementation of methane management approaches. Our strong focus on methane emissions abatement, coupled with the application of new technologies has positioned Eni as an industry leader and significantly reduced our methane emissions over the past decade.

Eni believes that natural gas has a role in the energy transition pathway to 2050 because of its affordability, reliability, versatility, and low carbon content compared to other fossil fuels. However, global action is needed to eliminate methane slips in the natural gas value chain, a cause Eni has stood behind for over a decade. 

“We are now pleased to apply our own learnings in partnership with others in the sector and supply chain, to help deliver meaningful methane reductions across the oil and gas value chain.  As we look to the future, our commitment remains firmly fixed on delivering our target of near-zero methane emissions by 2030,” added Eni CEO.

As reported, Eni Group’s direct methane emissions more than halved in the 2018–2023 period. While pursuing near-zero methane emissions by 2030, the firm has managed to achieve a 95% reduction in fugitive methane emissions and an 86% reduction in methane intensity across upstream operations in 2023 compared to 2014 levels, paired with a 20% cut in the upstream business’ methane emissions from 2022 to 2023. Furthermore, the firm says its upstream methane intensity of 0.06% places it among the leaders in the industry.

Guided by the Oil & Gas Methane Partnership 2.0 (OGMP 2.0) principles, the Italian firm says it uses the best available technologies on the market, most of which exploit methane optical characteristics – light absorption in the infrared spectrum – to assess its concentration in the air and to calculate the flow rate of emissions using local weather data.

The energy giant’s method for methane detection is two-sided, as it tests the effectiveness of innovative technologies present on the market, but also works with partners on developing its own monitoring and mitigation technologies to contribute to decarbonization.

Methane initiatives

Eni has joined various methane initiatives since 2014 when it started including data on methane emissions for all segments of its operations in reports. The company joined the UNEP Oil & Gas Methane Partnership and the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI) in 2014, as well as the Methane Guiding Principles (MGP) in 2018. This was followed by committing to OGMP 2.0 in 2022 and joining the OGCI Initiative Aiming for Zero Methane Emissions by 2030 in 2023, while 2024 saw the Italian firm becoming part of the World Bank Global Flaring and Methane Reduction (GFMR) fund and Oil & Gas Decarbonization Charter (OGDC).

Launched at COP28, the OGDC is meant to help align the sector towards transparent and concrete actions to reduce emissions, including methane and flaring. The charter signatories represent more than 40% of global oil production, with over 60% of these being National Oil Companies (NOCs) – a record number of such companies to commit to a decarbonization initiative.

The Italian major also signed collaboration agreements with NOCs, including Egypt’s EGAS, Algeria’s Sonatrach, Azerbaijan’s SOCAR, and UAE’s ADNOC, aimed at sharing best methane management practices to enable industry-wide reductions.

Furthermore, the company collaborates with international organizations, institutions, nonprofits, academia, and industry associations, such as IPIECA and IOGP, within various expert groups. Their work entails defining the scale of methane emissions with more accuracy, developing best practices for monitoring, reporting, and verification, and advocating the deployment of new technologies for monitoring and abatement of emissions across the sector, such as through the OGCI-founded Climate Investment.

In line with its decarbonization efforts, two years ago, the firm partnered with compatriot Snam on the first carbon capture and storage (CCS) project in Italy, entailing a facility fully powered by electricity from renewable sources, avoiding further CO2 emissions. The CO2 injection activities at the storage facility off the coast of Ravenna started last month.

Apart from this, Eni has been busy with its core business operations. This month, it combined its UK upstream business with Ithaca Energy, becoming the UK’s second-largest oil and gas independent operator. The new entity now has stakes in six of the ten largest fields and the top two largest development fields on the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS).