Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy Corporation is making another major step in making sure its natural gas production is socially and environmentally responsible.
The company announced a new collaboration with MiQ and Equitable Origin to begin independent certification of its natural gas production under the MiQ methane standard and the EO100TM Standard for Responsible Energy Development, which covers a broad range of environmental, social and governance criteria.
Chesapeake will work with MiQ and Equitable Origin to initially certify production across its Gulf Coast asset before expanding into its Appalachia asset, making Chesapeake the first company to certify production across two major shale basins.
This new project demonstrates Chesapeake’s commitment to environmental stewardship and sustainable production across its gas basins. Chesapeake has pledged to reduce methane intensity to 0.09% by 2025, and MiQ Certification will provide a verified approach to tracking this commitment, as well as support Chesapeake in its overall objective of achieving net-zero direct greenhouse gas emissions by 2035.
Mike Wichterich, Chesapeake’s Board Chairman and Interim Chief Executive Officer, commented, “Leading a responsible energy future is core to Chesapeake’s values, and this partnership marks another important step as we advance our focus on differentially lowering our methane and GHG intensity in pursuit of achieving our pledge to reach net-zero direct emissions.”
MiQ, a non-profit partnership between RMI and SYSTEMIQ, is pioneering a market-based approach to rapidly reduce methane emissions across the natural gas sector. Its quantitative certification standard – the MiQ Standard – factors in methane intensity, company practices, and methane detection.
MiQ certified natural gas embodies a commitment to transparency, accountability, technology independence, and granularity.
Georges Tijbosch, Senior Adviser, MiQ, said: “We are delighted to be working with Chesapeake on this important project. Diligently monitoring and abating methane – which has 84x the global warming potential of CO21 – is critical if we are to reach our climate objectives.”
Equitable Origin has a proven track record of certifying energy production on ESG indicators in accordance with its EO100™ Standard for Responsible Energy Development, a set of rigorous ESG performance targets for energy development projects.
Equitable Origin’s approved assessors will evaluate Chesapeake’s produced natural gas against the five principles of the EO100™ Standard, including corporate governance and ethics; social impacts, human rights and community engagement; Indigenous Peoples’ rights; occupational health & safety and fair labor standards; and environmental impacts, biodiversity and climate change.
Soledad Mills, CEO, Equitable Origin, commented: “We are excited to be working with MiQ and Chesapeake on this new project. Chesapeake is committed to protecting the country’s natural resources and reducing its environmental footprint.”
Chesapeake anticipates that the certified natural gas will be available by the end of 2021 in the Gulf Coast basin and the second quarter of 2022 in the Appalachia basin.