EPA, India-Based Corporation Join Forces to Reduce Greenhouse Gas

EPA and India’s largest oil producer last week signed an agreement to work together to reduce emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. The Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd. (ONGC), headquartered in Dehradun, has joined seven other large oil and natural gas companies as a partner in EPA’s Natural Gas STAR International Program. This program, implemented in support of the Methane to Markets Partnership, aims to identify and implement projects in the oil and natural gas sector that cost-effectively reduce methane emissions and deliver more gas to markets around the world.

“Pollution knows no geographic or political borders” said EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson. “By exporting our successes in methane recovery, the U.S. is helping India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corporation take methane waste and turn it into environmental and economic wealth.”

Methane is over 20 times as effective as carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere. In addition to the greenhouse gas mitigation benefits, capturing and using methane as a clean fuel provides economic and energy security benefits, since methane is the primary component of natural gas.

By joining Natural Gas STAR International, ONGC agrees to implement technologies and practices to reduce methane emissions where it is deemed cost-effective and submit annual reports detailing methane emission reductions achieved. For its part, EPA agrees to assist ONGC with analysis of emerging technologies, development of workshops and training courses and assistance with implementation of industry best practices.

“I am pleased that ONGC has joined hands with US EPA to combat greenhouse gas emissions,” said R S Sharma, chairman & managing director, ONGC. “As an environmentally conscious company, ONGC is committed to the cause of mitigating global warming. This present endeavor will be a good and fruitful step towards that end and will pave a way for a good relationship between ONGC with USEPA.”

Natural Gas STAR International is administered under the Methane to Markets Partnership. The Partnership has 20 partner countries and nearly 600 Project Network members across the globe and is preparing for its ’Partnership Expo: A Forum for Projects, Technology, Financing and Policy’, which will be held from Oct. 30 to Nov. 1 in Beijing, China.

Natural Gas STAR International builds on the domestic Natural Gas STAR Program. Working with EPA, the 110 Natural Gas STAR Program industry partners have collectively reduced U.S. methane emissions by about 578 billion cubic feet since 1990. This is equivalent to the annual greenhouse gas emissions of more than 50 million U.S. vehicles. Today, the U.S. oil and gas industry emits approximately 10 percent less methane than it did in 1990, largely because of the industry’s voluntary methane emissions reductions in collaboration with the Natural Gas STAR Program.

Other partners in the Natural Gas STAR International Program include ConocoPhillips Canada, Devon Energy Corp., Enbridge Energy Co. Inc., ExxonMobil, Marathon Oil Corp., Occidental Petroleum Corp., and TransCanada.