Curtailing methane leaks from oil and gas infrastructure could be the quickest and easiest way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as Southeast Asia struggles to balance climate action with rising energy demand, experts say.
To continue reading, subscribe to Eco‑Business.
There's something for everyone. We offer a range of subscription plans.
- Access our stories and receive our Insights Weekly newsletter with the free EB Member plan.
- Unlock unlimited access to our content and archive with EB Circle.
- Publish your content with EB Premium.
Speaking at an event organised by Eco-Business, Dr Shareen Yawanarajah, senior director, global energy transition at climate advocacy group Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), said that while agriculture and waste landfills are major methane sources, oil and gas methane emissions are “low hanging fruit” because reduction technologies are more readily available.
According to EDF research, 90 per cent of oil and gas infrastructure methane emissions come from leaks from equipment such as oil wells, tanks or from venting. Technologies to stop leaks can reroute methane back into fuel systems instead of burning or releasing it, or replace control systems that release methane with those that use compressed air.
Peter Godfrey (pictured, far left) addresses the panel, which included (from left) Eco-Business founder Jessica Cheam, EDF director Shareen Yawanarajah, ACE director Beni Suryadi, and Energy Market Authority’s Toh Wee Khiang. Image: Eco-Business
Yawanarajah, who previously worked for oil major Shell, noted that capturing methane presented economic opportunities for oil and gas companies, as it can be used as fuel.
“Wasted methane is wasted energy. We want to keep every molecule in the pipe or in the ship,” she said.
The Eco-Business panel discussion was hosted in partnership with EDF, and speakers debated strategies that Asia’s energy sector should prioritise to fast-track decarbonisation.
A recent study found that Malaysia’s upstream oil and gas industry could earn US$8.2 to US$11 million in net revenue from managing methane emissions. Yawanarajah noted that better methane management in Japan could power 35 per cent of the country’s residential and commercial natural gas use.
Rapid cuts in methane emissions from fossil fuels could avoid up to 0.1°C in global temperature rise by 2050, according to the International Energy Agency. The gas has 80 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide over a 20-year period.
Asia is an important region for methane, as 60 per cent of natural gas demand is projected to be driven by the region by 2050, and 60 per cent of global methane emissions will come from Asia by mid-century. More than 100 countries, including Japan and Korea, committed to slash methane emissions by 30 per cent by 2030 at the COP26 climate talks in 2021.
However, progress in Southeast Asia to curb methane pollution has been “not so good”, commented Beni Suryadi, acting executive director of the Asean Centre for Energy (ACE), a Jakarta-based intergovernmental think tank. Using energy intensity as a proxy for methane release, Suryadi said that Asean was “far away” from hitting a 32 per cent energy intensity reduction target by next year.
A lack of regulations to monitor and control methane emissions, as well as poor data quality have been cited as obstacles to reducing methane pollution in Southeast Asia.
Yawanarajah said a problem was inertia among countries that import natural gas and argue that responsibility for cutting methane emissions lies upstream. “Buyers have a responsibility [to address methane pollution] too. They can set the criteria for buyers to meet certain standards for emissions,” she said.
Suryadi said that methane pollution is a growing concern for Southeast Asia, as the region’s fossil fuel-based energy demand is projected to grow by 260 per cent by 2050. “Countries have made commitments [to decarbonise], but if you look at the trends, Asean will continue to rely on oil, gas and coal for the foreseeable future,” he said.
ACE has projected that oil and gas will still contribute over 60 per cent of the region’s primary energy supply in 2050, even if the regional bloc boosts the share of renewables in the energy mix. ACE is working with the World Bank to develop a tool for oil and gas firms to control their methane footprint.
Peter Godfrey, Asia Pacific managing director of Energy Institute, a membership body for energy sector professionals, noted that 50 oil and gas companies, including the world’s largest oil company Aramco, committed to cut methane to near-zero by 2030 at the last COP climate talks in Dubai, but progress towards meeting that target has been slow.
Yawanarajah acknowledged that finance and capacity were legitimate barriers to adoption for methane mitigation technologies, but the prospect of regulation – a fee on methane pollution was introduced in the United States earlier this year – should nudge industry to move faster on methane.
Yawanarajah also added that there is a need for greater transparency over methane pollution. While oil and gas industry players have pledged to monitor progress through the Global Methane Pledge, EDF recently launched its own satellite-based system to measure methane release.
“The data will be publicly available, so there will be nowhere for polluters to hide,” she said.
Negotiators are now preparing to head for the COP29 global climate summit, and the talks are happening at a time when methane levels are accumulating in the atmosphere “faster than at any time experienced during human existence”, according to the United Nations weather agency, World Meteorological Organisation.
The UN also said that the planet is on course to warm by 3.1 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels at current emissions rates, which scientists warn will mean protracted heat waves, crop failure, and increases in insect-borne diseases.
