Williams announced it has joined the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Oil and Gas Methane Partnership 2.0 (OGMP 2.0), the global initiative designed to improve the energy industry’s methane emissions reporting and to encourage progress in reducing those emissions.
Joining OGMP 2.0 supports Williams’ next generation natural gas strategy to drive transparency and decarbonization of the natural gas value chain through technology investments, providing path-specific methane intensity certifications to utilities, LNG export facilities and other clean energy users.
OGMP 2.0 is UNEP’s flagship oil and gas reporting and mitigation program. It is the only comprehensive, measurement-based international reporting framework for the sector. In the past two years, nearly 100 companies with operations in more than 60 countries have joined the initiative. They represent more than 35 per cent of global oil and gas production.
OGMP 2.0 member companies strive to report methane emissions in accordance with what are widely recognized as the highest established standards while setting industry-leading methane reduction targets.
“Williams is committed to achieving the most stringent methane performance standards as prescribed by OGMP 2.0, thus setting the pace for the midstream sector in the United States,” said Alan Armstrong, Williams President and CEO.
“We handle one third of U.S. natural gas, giving us unique visibility to how gas molecules are produced, processed, transported and used. By leveraging new technology across our nationwide infrastructure footprint, we are confident we can enhance the trust and transparency needed to grow a differentiated low-emissions gas market and provide clean, reliable gas supplies to domestic and international buyers focused on a low-carbon future.”
“We are glad to welcome Williams as part of our global initiative, which incentivizes member companies to reduce methane emissions and allocate capital efficiently,” said Giulia Ferrini, OGMP 2.0 Project Manager, UNEP. “We look forward to Williams’ contribution as OGMP 2.0 is more than a rigorous reporting framework: it is a unique platform for collective action and peer learning among our members, who jointly develop new industry norms on methane management.”
Williams’ NextGen Gas program provides verified emissions profiles and captures the progress from greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions across the natural gas value chain – from customers and its own operations – using monitoring and measurement technologies including satellites, flyovers and multiple sensing devices, as well as real-time internal operational data that is designed to meet the OGMP 2.0 protocols. As part of this program, Williams recently invested in Orbital Sidekick, a satellite-based emissions monitoring company and LongPath Technologies, a provider of laser-based continuous emissions monitoring and quantification technology. Data from these technologies will be aggregated with other forms of measurement data and synthesized by Context Labs’ Decarbonization as a Service (DasS) platform to provide verified emissions profiles and capture the progress from reductions across the natural gas value chain for Williams and its customers.
Tuesday’s announced membership in OGMP 2.0 complements other methane performance initiatives in which Williams is engaged, including ONE Future, a group of natural gas companies working to voluntarily reduce methane emissions to less than 1% across the natural gas value chain. Williams also belongs to the Energy Emissions Modelling and Data Lab (EEMDL), a collaborative initiative involving the University of Texas at Austin, Colorado State University and the Colorado School of Mines to provide science-based greenhouse gas emissions assessments of global oil and gas supply chains.
In 2022, Williams was once again recognized across several key rankings – including CDP Climate Change Questionnaire, S&P Global ESG Score, Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) and MSCI – for the company’s commitment to transparency and governance around climate change and other ESG topics. Williams was named for the third consecutive year to the DJSI North America index and for the second consecutive year to the DJSI World index.
Source: press release