Methane is a powerful but short-lived greenhouse gas.  Achieving near-term reductions could have a rapid and significant effect on near-term atmospheric warming.  The oil and gas sector has the greatest share of cost-effective and technically feasible methane mitigation potential.  Rapidly reducing methane emissions is a win-win, contributing to shared climate objectives and enhancing energy security. CLDP’s Energy Transition team advises on the policy, legal, regulatory, and contractual reforms that will attract responsible investment in abating methane emissions from oil and gas.   

Methane Abatement for Oil & Gas – A Handbook for Policymakers 

In support of the Global Methane Pledge and Clean EDGE (Enhancing Development and Growth through Energy) Asia initiative, and sponsored by the US Department of State, Bureau of Energy Resources, CLDP developed an open-access plain language handbook for policymakers on reducing methane from oil and gas operations, entitled Methane Abatement for Oil and Gas – Handbook for Policymakers. The Handbook is a starting point for understanding the policies, rules, and best practices that countries can adopt and implement to effectively abate methane when producing oil and gas.

A practical resource for decision-makers on the policy and strategy behind encouraging methane abatement from the oil and gas sector, this guide empowers legislators, ministries, regulators, and National Oil Company officials to adopt and enforce rules that will rapidly and effectively reduce methane emissions from the oil and gas sector.  The Handbook was created using the Book Sprints method, in close collaboration with a diverse group of experts from U.S. government agencies, foreign governments, multilateral institutions, the oil and gas industry, civil society, and academia. 

The Handbook can be downloaded in full here:

The Handbook is also available in Russian, Vietnamese, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Turkmen, Arabic, Malay, Bahasa Indonesia, and French.

Technical Assistance for Methane Abatement in the Oil & Gas Sector 

In addition to the Handbook, CLDP provides technical assistance on a government-to-government basis. CLDP's technical assistance on methane abatement from the oil and gas sector provides government and private sector partners with the essential tools and comprehensive legal frameworks to sustainably reduce methane emissions to meet global climate change goals. By promoting international best practices, CLDP's approach unites public and private sector efforts to foster enabling business environments where methane abatement can take place without sacrificing energy sector investment:

• How to Make Reducing Methane a Win-Win, such as how oil and gas operators can increase revenues, reduce costs, and governments can boost reputation globally; how to find the sources of methane emissions in the entire oil and gas value chain from upstream, midstream, and downstream; and how to set reduction targets and prioritize what sources should be mitigated first. 
• How to Most Efficiently Reduce Methane Emissions, such as how to develop regulations to boost technologies and practices to effectively reduce methane emissions. 
• How to Commercialize Flared Natural Gas, to create new sources of revenue for governments, incentivizing associated gas for consumption and enabling and fast-tracking gas infrastructure. 
• How to Procure Methane Reduction Goods and Services, such as how companies – including State Owned Entities – can immediately begin procuring methane mitigation and management services that will reduce methane emissions to meet their government’s targets. 
• Updating rules and contracts to reduce the methane footprints of oil and gas, through adopting legal and contractual provisions to align with the goals of the Global Methane Pledge. 

The EPA's New Methane Rule

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on December 2, 2023, issued a final rule on abating methane and other harmful air pollution from oil and natural gas operations. This new rule includes updated and strengthened standards for methane and other air pollutants from new, modified, and reconstructed sources as well as Emissions Guidelines to assist states in developing plans to limit methane emissions from existing sources. 

The final rule and other related documentation is available here. 

An overview and summary of requirements is available here and here.