* OGCI members set target to cut carbon intensity
* Target already exceeded by some members
* GRAPHIC: European oil majors' spending tilts green https://tmsnrt.rs/3dWh9VV
* FACTBOX-Big Oil's varied climate targets
By Ron Bousso
LONDON, July 16 (Reuters) - A group of the world's top oil
companies including Saudi Aramco, China's CNPC and Exxon Mobil
have for the first time set targets to cut their combined
greenhouse gas emissions as a proportion of production, as
pressure on the sector's climate stance grows.
However, the target set by the 12 members of the Oil and Gas
Climate Initiative (OGCI) is eclipsed by more ambitious plans
set individually by the consortium's European members, including
Royal Dutch Shell, BP and Total.
The OGCI members agreed to reduce the average carbon
intensity of their aggregated upstream oil and gas operations to
between 20 kg and 21 kg of CO2 equivalent per barrel of oil
equivalent (CO2e/boe) by 2025, from a collective baseline of 23
kg CO2e/boe in 2017, the OGCI said in a statement.
Intensity targets mean absolute emissions can rise with
increasing production.
The OGCI includes BP, Chevron, CNPC, Eni
, Equinor, Exxon, Occidental Petroleum
, Petrobras, Repsol, Saudi Aramco
, Shell and Total, which together
account for over 30% of the world's oil and gas production.
"It is a significant milestone, it is not the end of the
work, it is a near term target ... and we'll keep calibrating as
we go forward," OGCI Chairman and former BP CEO Bob Dudley told
Reuters.
The members agreed on a common methodology to calculate
carbon intensity and the targets could be extended to other
sectors such as liquefied natural gas and refining in the
future, Dudley added.
The announcement marks an important change for Exxon, the
largest U.S. oil company, which has resisted investor pressure
to improve the disclosure of its impact on the environment. It
did not report its carbon emissions in 2019.
Exxon supports the OGCI targets to decrease the carbon
intensity of energy production and is "part of the industry's
efforts to take practical, meaningful steps to reduce
emissions," a spokesman said.
The targets set by different companies can vary widely in
scope and definition, making it difficult to compare.
However, some members of the OGCI already exceed or plan to
overshoot the joint target.
For example, Saudi Aramco, the world's top oil exporter, had
an upstream carbon intensity of 10.1kg CO2e/boe in 2019,
according to its annual report.
Norway's Equinor aims to reduce its CO2 intensity below
8kg/boe by 2025. It has said the current global industry average
is 18 kg CO2e/boe.
OGCI said the group's collective carbon intensity would be
reported annually, with data reviewed by EY, as an independent
third party.
The target includes reductions in methane emissions, a
potent greenhouse gas, which the group had previously committed
to cut.
(Reporting by Ron Bousso, additional reporting by Shadia
Nasralla; Editing by Mark Potter)
BP (BP.)
