Methane inventories, but not regulatory submissions, show major variations in methane intensity for Canadian oil and gas producers

Abstract

In carbon-intensive industries like oil and gas production, ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) reports provide investors with information about carbon intensity performance and there is link between environmental and financial performance. In Canada, ESG reporting is not obligatory, and multiple frameworks are used making performance comparisons across producers challenging. Additionally, methane emissions from the oil and gas industry are underestimated in Canada which also suggests systemic under-reporting of emissions in this key area of carbon intensity. Here we investigate 2019 methane emission intensity gaps for 70 of Canada's largest oil and gas producers, between 1) provincial regulatory submissions, 2) assumed contributions to the federal inventory estimates, 3) a mobile ground laboratory measurement-based inventory, 4) and producer self-published ESG. We de-aggregated existing methane inventory estimates and measurements for Canada's largest producing province, Alberta, and found a greater than 1000-fold variation in methane intensities within the cohort. We also found surprisingly broad agreement in assumed methane emission intensities between (2) and (3), suggesting they capture the same signals. Regulatory submissions captured only a small amount of the total methane inventory and we also observed a low bias in regulatory reporting. In conclusion, we believe that changes to required and voluntary reporting, and associated systems management frameworks are needed to differentiate oil and gas producers and preserve market access based on carbon intensity.

Keywords

• ESG disclosure
• Methane emissions
• Leak rate
• Oil and gas
• Sustainability