ASEAN State-Owned O&G Firms to Agree Methane Baseline As Early As 2025

Petroliam Nasional Bhd. (Petronas) and a few other national oil and gas players in Southeast Asia have issued a joint statement committing to establishing a regional methane emissions baseline as early as next year.

The baseline, a reference point for measuring the amount of methane that would be released into the atmosphere relative to action scenarios, will be “informed by internationally recognized practices, to be followed by a quantifiable collective methane emissions reduction ambition by 2030”, the statement said.

Besides Malaysia’s Petronas, the other signatories are Cambodia’s Mines and Energy Ministry, Indonesia’s PT Pertamina, Myanmar’s Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise, the Philippine National Oil Co., Singapore LNG Corporation Pte. Ltd., Thailand’s PTT Public Co. Ltd. and the ASEAN Center for Energy. The entities are members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Council on Petroleum (ASCOPE).

Of ASEAN’s 10 member states, six are part of the Global Methane Pledge: Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam. At COP26 in 2021, the European Union and the United States launched the Global Methane Pledge, which aims to cut human-caused methane emissions by at least 30 percent by 2030 relative to 2020 levels. The Global Methane Pledge has 158 participating countries, according to information on its website.

On November 12 at COP29 in Baku, the European Commission launched a roadmap for the Global Methane Pledge, with support from development banks, non-governmental organizations and major economies.

Besides the Commission, the roadmap alliance includes Canada, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the U.S. The banking and organizational partners are Carbon Limits, Clean Air Taskforce, Environmental Action Germany, the Environmental Defense Fund, the Environmental Investigation Agency, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Global Methane Hub, ICA Finance, the International Energy Agency, the Methane Matters Coalition and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

A joint statement by the roadmap partnership acknowledged that “in the last years methane emissions have not decreased but, on the contrary, increased”.

Toward the reduction goal, the roadmap unveiled in Azerbaijan aims to form cooperation frameworks between fossil fuel exporting and importing countries to cut emissions across the supply chain.

The roadmap also aims to develop a “robust” monitoring, reporting and verification system, including by using satellite, aerial and drone technologies.

Under the roadmap, the signing parties will work with the industry to formulate an abatement plan that has “a clear timeline, investment plan and human resources needed, as well as the amount of emissions to be abated, to the extent possible”, said the joint statement on the Commission’s website.

“At the same time, companies and private investors would work towards creating suitable financial conditions able to mobilize the investments needed”, the statement added.

The roadmap also aims to “secure the investments needed for emissions reduction projects in producing countries, together with relevant operators”.

“The World Bank could be one of the key financial partners for developing countries through the new Global Flaring and Methane Reduction trust fund, and private investors may provide capital through sustainability instruments”, the statement said.

“We call on other countries and stakeholders to support the Methane Abatement Partnership Roadmap and to showcase examples of implementation at COP30”, the partners said.

The statement by the Southeast Asian oil and gas stakeholders called for a “progressive, collaborative and inclusive approach to methane emissions reduction in the region’s energy sector as part of a just energy transition which puts nature, people, lives and livelihoods at the heart of climate action”.

They agreed to “collaborate across the Southeast Asian energy value chain to champion innovative solutions on methane emissions management, as well as strengthening measurement, monitoring, reporting, verification and mitigation measures, wherever possible”.

ASCOPE will facilitate the sharing of practices on methane reduction and decarbonization.

The Southeast Asian partners also pledged to “develop activities in support of the Paris Agreement goals, also recognizing that national circumstances require tailored approaches”.

They will “proactively advocate for a just and inclusive energy transition through meaningful dialogues, that align with the climate aspirations set by governments to drive targeted, tangible, properly accounted, and scalable emissions reduction that considers the broader impacts of the energy transition”.

To contact the author, email jov.onsat@rigzone.com