JULY 2024
National Oil Companies and
Methane Reductions
How to Meet 2030 Goals
By Ben Cahill
R
educing methane emissions from oil and gas is one of the best available options to slow the
pace of global warming. National oil companies (NOCs) produce about half of the world’s oil
and gas, and their participation will be vital in eorts to cut methane emissions. At the 2023
UN Climate Change Conference (COP28) in Dubai, more than 50 companies signed the Oil and Gas
Decarbonization Charter (OGDC), which included ambitious methane reduction targets. This was the
rst such commitment made by many NOCs.
At the halfway market to the next COP summit, follow-through is uncertain and increased transparency
is required to monitor progress. Many NOCs will need guidance, technical support, and capacity
building to better measure, monitor, report, and verify their methane emissions. A few will need
nancial support from multilateral institutions, industry associations, or nancial sector institutions.
In the past few years, as awareness and concern over oil and gas methane emissions have grown,
promising new initiatives have promoted industry collaboration and assistance for NOCs from
environmental groups and philanthropies.
This paper examines what these companies must do to realize their plans and raise their ambitions,
and which types of partnerships can help accelerate these changes. It summarizes the importance
of methane reductions by state oil companies, outlines their climate and methane reduction
commitments, and analyzes the progress and emissions reductions pathways that will be necessary to
meet these important goals. The paper also highlights case studies of eective collaboration with these
companies to promote methane reductions, including stories of how various NOCs have engaged with
external actors.
