Egypt shows leadership on methane reductions ahead of COP27
Ahead of COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh Egypt, CATF and Capterio have found that Egypt has made real progress on its commitments under the Global Methane Pledge — effectively reducing flaring from its oil and gas sector 26% since 2016.
“Egypt has shown great progress on methane, and they deserve to be commended for it,” said Jonathan Banks, Global Director of Methane Pollution Prevention at Clean Air Task Force. “As world leaders gather in Sharm El-Sheikh for COP27, many having previously committed to cutting methane as part of the Global Methane Pledge, Egypt’s project level success in cutting emissions should serve as an example of how to go from pledges to action, and we need a lot more action. If we are to start to bend the curve on climate, we need nations around the world to take up these common sense, cost-effective, and readily achievable reductions.”
The report, Leadership on flaring in Egypt: Recent successes and future opportunities in the lead-up to COP27, provides an overview of the various methane capture projects Egypt has deployed to reduce methane emissions from its oil and gas and gas sector. These projects include gas-to-pipeline projects from companies like Naftogaz and United Oil and Gas that capture 5 and 15 million scf/day, respectively, and gas-to-power projects from Pharos, Apache, and Shell (now Capricorn & Cheiron), which use power to run the local oil and gas field operations instead of burning diesel (which itself is in short supply in Egypt). The report’s authors estimate that these projects saved up to 3 million liters of diesel per month, lowering operating costs by several tens of million dollars per year while reducing emissions, improving the safety of truck drivers and other road users, and provided the Egyptian grid with the energy (from previously wasted gas) to power more than 600,000 Egyptian homes.
“Wasted gas is a critical issue to solve, especially during today’s energy and climate crises,” said Mark Davis, CEO at Capterio. “In the run-up to COP27, we are pleased to see that Egypt has shown leadership to reduce flaring and we encourage it to double down on this progress to further reduce flaring, venting, and leaking. We also hope its progress can serve as inspiration for countries, who can put commonsense solutions in place to reduce their methane emissions – whilst creating real commercial value – now.”
The report recommends that countries:
- Develop a national flaring task force. This task force would identify barriers to implementation of flaring reduction projects and help streamline funding opportunities to shovel-ready projects, as needed.
- Demonstrate the delivery of successful flare capture projects and share the learnings within countries and internationally through forums like the Climate and Clean Air Coalition, the Global Methane Initiative, and industry-led programs and initiatives.
- Incentivize better coordination and collaboration between industry players, especially in complex cases where capturing gas from flares of one operator requires access to critical processing facilities and/or pipelines of another operator. In some cases, this will require commercial innovation and agile thinking.
It recommends that operators, funders, and multilateral organizations:
- Mobilize and deliver timely capital from projects such as the Global Methane Pledge Energy Pathway as well as international development banks.
- Accelerate the delivery of projects, dramatically reducing the time for negotiation, contracting and approvals from years to months.
Methane is a harmful super pollutant that warms the planet more than 80 times more than carbon dioxide over its first 20 years in the atmosphere. It’s responsible for about half a degree Celsius of global warming so far, and its levels are rising fast. Learn more about methane and CATF’s work to reduce methane emissions.
About Clean Air Task Force
Clean Air Task Force (CATF) is a global nonprofit organization working to safeguard against the worst impacts of climate change by catalyzing the rapid development and deployment of low-carbon energy and other climate-protecting technologies. With 25 years of internationally recognized expertise on climate policy and a fierce commitment to exploring all potential solutions, CATF is a pragmatic, non-ideological advocacy group with the bold ideas needed to address climate change. CATF has offices in Boston, Washington D.C., and Brussels, with staff working virtually around the world. Visit catf.us and follow @cleanaircatf.
About Capterio
Capterio is a leading flare solutions company, focused on reducing emissions, creating value and accelerating the energy transition. Capterio works with partners to monitor flares on a daily basis from satelittes (improving visibility, optimizing operations and prioritizing investment solutions) and provides a range of project and consultancy services. We also partner with operators and EPC groups to accelerate the delivering of on-the-ground flare implementation. Visit Capterio at www.capterio.com and sign up to our free (or Pro) version of FlareIntel (our flare-tracking service) at www.flareintel.com.
