New Initiative Looks to Boost Oil Industry’s Decarbonization Efforts

As capital continues to dry up for the energy industry amid a historic downturn, a new source of funding has recently been made available for oil and gas companies with projects targeting the reduction of methane emissions.

Following concerns that independent operators may slow down decarbonization projects in the current low-price environment, the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI) Climate Investments has announced a new program to finance or invest in projects that deliver significant near-term methane emissions reduction.

“Funding companies with technologies that find and fix methane emissions has been a key part of our mandate,” James Mackey, managing director at OGCI Climate Investments, told Hart Energy. “In light of the current environment though, OGCI Climate Investments was concerned that efforts by independent operators to mitigate and fix emissions may be slowed in the wake of the pandemic and low oil price environment. We don’t want companies to lose momentum due to a lack of capital. Therefore, we announced an investment call for projects through which we will invest capital from our fund in global projects that deliver significant near-term methane emissions reduction.”