A pumpjack pumps oil in the Inglewood Oil Field as seen from the Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area on July 13, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. – US consumer price inflation surged 9.1 percent over the past 12 months to June, the fastest increase since November 1981, according to government data released on July 13. Driven by record-high gasoline prices, the consumer price index jumped 1.3 percent in June, the Labor Department reported.
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Hilcorp Energy, Exxon Mobil, and ConocoPhillips release the most greenhouse gasses among U.S. oil and gas companies, according to a new report published Thursday from several sustainability organizations using data from the U.S. government.
The annual report ranks emissions data from the 303 oil and gas companies in the U.S. that report emissions under the EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, and aims to bring transparency into emissions reporting, which has historically been hard to measure in a comparable and consistent manner.
Non-profit organizations Clean Air Task Force and Ceres commissioned the sustainability consultancy ERM to develop the report, and it uses government data up through 2020, the most up-to-date emissions data available from the Environmental Protection Agency. Data for 2021 will be released in October.
Greenhouse gas emissions include methane, carbon dioxide, and nitrous oxide emissions, which differ in their impact on warming. For example, over 100 years, one ton of methane emissions has the same impact on global warming as 29.8 tons of carbon dioxide. In many places, the report ranks companies and regions by so-called “GWP’s,” or units of global warming potential, which take into account these variabilities.
The total units of GWPs do not correlate directly with the production of oil and gas. For example, while Hilcorp Energy is the largest emitter of greenhouse gas units, it is the seventh largest producer of hydrocarbons. Conoco Phillips is the third largest emitter of greenhouse gasses and the eighth largest producer of hydrocarbons.
“This new report makes clear what experts have long known: There are clear steps oil and gas producers can take to reduce their methane and other greenhouse gas emissions,” Lesley Feldman, senior analyst at Clean Air Task Force, said in a written statement released alongside the new report. “Some are taking those steps while others are not, and federal and state regulations are key to ensuring we can standardize best practices across the industry.”
Emissions intensity vs total emissions
To get a sense of company’s operational abilities to decarbonize, the report measures emissions intensity, or emissions per unit of energy generated. Total emissions will tend to skew towards the largest producers, while emissions intensity does not.
In terms of total greenhouse gas emissions intensity for the 303 companies, Hilcorp Energy ranks 128th ConocoPhillips ranks 191th and Exxon ranks 238th.
There’s a stark divergence between the…
Read More: Hilcorp, Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips are top greenhouse gas emitters