Exxon to Cut US Methane Emissions
US major ExxonMobil has announced an enhanced program to reduce methane emissions from its production and midstream facilities across the US, it said September 25.
The program is focused on sites operated by subsidiary XTO Energy and includes efforts to develop and deploy new, more efficient technologies to detect and reduce facility emissions, it said.
“We are implementing an enhanced leak detection and repair program across our production and midstream sites to continually reduce methane emissions, and are also evaluating opportunities to upgrade facilities and improve efficiency at both current and future sites,” said XTO president Sara Ortwein. “Our comprehensive initiative is underscored by a technology research and testing effort, and includes personnel training, equipment phase out and facility design improvements.”
ExxonMobil's announcement comes 3 days after Statoil said as an operator it had achieved "two years ahead of schedule" its target set in 2015 of reducing annual carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the Norwegian continental shelf by 1.2mn metric tons from 2008 to 2020. The company now has a target of reducing CO2 emissions from the NCS by an additional 2mn mt by 2030.
William Powell