Oil and gas companies reveal $1 bln climate investment plans

The Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI), designed to catalyze practical action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, said it will invest US$1 billion over the next ten years to deploy low emissions technologies. 

The OGCI Climate Investments will aim to deploy new technologies among member companies and beyond and also identify ways to cut the energy intensity of both transport and industry, believing that working in partnership the emission reduction impact can be multiplied across industries.

In a joint statement, the heads of the 10 oil and gas companies that comprise the OGCI said, “The creation of OGCI Climate Investments shows our collective determination to deliver technology on a large-scale that will create a step change to help tackle the climate challenge. We are personally committed to ensuring that by working with others our companies play a key role in reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases, while still providing the energy the world needs.”

This investment will complement the companies’ existing low emissions technology programs, the statement reads.

Two focus areas have been identified through discussions with shareholders, namely, the acceleration of the development of carbon capture, use and storage and the reduction of methane emissions from the global oil and gas industry in order to maximize the climate benefits of natural gas.

OGCI believes that these are areas where the oil and gas industry has meaningful influence and where its collaborative work can have the greatest impact.

Besides this, the initiative will invest in the improvement of energy and operational efficiencies in energy-intensive industries and work with manufacturers to increase energy efficiency in all modes of transportation.

The CEO and management team for OGCI Climate Investments will be announced in the near future.

The ten OGCI member companies are BP, CNPC, Eni, Pemex, Reliance Industries, Repsol, Royal Dutch Shell, Saudi Aramco, Statoil and Total.