China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) cut its methane emission intensity by 6 per cent last year from the 2019 level, the top oil and gas producer said. The energy giant had pledged to deepen emission intensity of the planet warming gas, typically released during the production and transport of coal, natural gas and oil, by 50 per cent by 2025 from a 2019 baseline.
“We have been optimising energy structure, developing clean energy and increasing methane recycle and utilisation,” the company said in its latest environmental report. It has carried out measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) of greenhouse gas, it added.
China has vowed to enhance emission control of methane, the second largest contributor to global warming after carbon dioxide, and other greenhouse gases, in its latest five-year plan from 2021 to 2025.
Oil and gas firms contribute about 3.1 million tonnes of methane emission in China, or about 45 per cent of its total emissions of the planet warming gas. CNPC was one of the leading oil and gas firms that formed an alliance in May that aims to cut average methane emission intensity during natural gas production to below 0.25 per cent by 2025.
CNPC boosted its natural gas output to more than 50 per cent of its energy production portfolio for the first time in 2020, in line with China’s vow to reduce coal burning and boost consumption of clean energy, including natural gas.
The group aims for a peak in its carbon emissions by around 2025, reaching near-zero emissions by 2050, a decade ahead of China’s carbon neutrality target of 2060.
