India's ONGC and TotalEnergies Take Aim at Methane Emissions

7 Feb 2024 , 12:08 PM

In order to improve methane emissions detection and reduction in India, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and TotalEnergies have inked a partnership agreement. TotalEnergies will use its cutting-edge AUSEA (Airborne Ultralight Spectrometer for Environmental Applications) technology.

The agreement was formalised during India Energy Week 2024 and is essential to ONGC’s objective to reducing its methane emissions by 2030.

Sushma Rawat, Director (Exploration), of ONGC, and Sangkaran Ratnam, Country Chair of TotalEnergies in India, signed the agreement, which intends to drastically reduce methane emissions in accordance with the Oil and Gas Decarbonisation Charter (OGDC) targets set at COP28.

As signatories of the OGDC at COP28, Patrick Pouyanné, Chairman and CEO of TotalEnergies, emphasised the cooperative effort by saying: ‘Aiming for zero methane emissions by 2030, we are proud to make our AUSEA technology available to ONGC in India, to detect, measure, and reduce methane emissions.’

Compared to 2020 levels, ONGC wants to cut its methane emissions by 50% by 2027 and 80% by 2030. The AUSEA technology is a major advancement in the detection and measurement of methane emissions, providing accurate data for both onshore and offshore installations. It works by mounting a gas analyzer on a drone to identify methane and carbon dioxide emissions and their sources.

According to ONGC Chairman and CEO Arun Kumar Singh, ‘The introduction of the AUSEA technology will bolster our efforts to achieve zero methane emissions by 2038, in alignment with our goals as OGDC signatories.’

Between 2010 and 2020, TotalEnergies achieved a 50% reduction in methane emissions from its managed locations, demonstrating its leadership in this area. The corporation has set an aggressive goal to further cut methane emissions by 50% by 2025. Compared to 2020 levels, the company hopes to meet this goal a year early in 2024 and by 80% in 2030.

Additionally, TotalEnergies, which has retained the OGMP Gold standard accreditation for three years running, advocates for the United Nations Oil and Gas Methane Partnership (OGMP 2.0) framework.

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