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* OGCI to invest in technologies that increase gas use
* Investment dwarfed by firms' $100 bln combined annualcapex
* 2015 Paris Agreement comes into force on Friday (Adds comments, details)
By Karolin Schaps and Ron Bousso
LONDON, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Some of the world's biggest oilcompanies, including Saudi Aramco
The Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI), which alsoincludes Total, BP, Eni, Repsol, Statoil, CNPC, Pemex and RelianceIndustries, launched the Climate Investments fundwhich will invest in technologies to reduce carbon emissions butwhich will also help an increase gas use.
The companies pledged to use a large share of the $1 billionfor speeding up carbon capture, use and storage (CCUS) ingas-fired power plants and towards reducing leakages of methane,one of the most polluting greenhouse gases.
"If we can reduce and build the technologies to monitor andreduce fugitive methane emissions that's like an essentiallicence for us to be able to advocate natural gas," BP ChiefExecutive Bob Dudley told journalists.
The investment is nevertheless dwarfed by the joint annualspending of the member companies, even as they battle one of thelongest downturns in the sector's history. Shell, Total, BP,Statoil, Repsol and Eni are expected to spend nearly $100billion in 2016.
The 10 firms, which jointly produce around 20 percent of theworld's oil and gas, have already screened a list of 200CCUS-related technologies and are now assessing which one orones to develop to commercial scale.
The group will also invest in improving efficiency intransport and energy-intensive industries.
The announcement coincides with the official coming intoforce of the 2015 Paris Agreement, intended to wean the worldeconomy off coal, oil and gas in the second half of this centuryin order to slash carbon emissions.
The oil and gas sector, which is directly responsible for 5percent of manmade greenhouse emissions and the use of itsproducts for another 32 percent, is under growing pressure frominvestors and the general public to help fight climate change.
"If the CEOs of the 10 largest corporations meet six timesduring the year it's not for philanthropy, it's real business,"said Patrick Pouyanne, chief executive of Total.
Critics have said oil companies need to do more to reduceemissions and to shield themselves from climate change risks.
"Companies could be worth considerably more, not less, ifthey aligned their portfolios with 2C by exercising capitaldiscipline and opting for lower-cost upstream projects that makeboth financial and climate sense," said Anthony Hobley, chiefexecutive of think tank Carbon Tracker Initiative. (Additional reporting by Terje Solsvik and Gwladys Fouche inOslo; editing by Andrew Roche and David Evans)
