A wave of innovative new technologies to curb methane emissions moved a step closer to deployment across the oil and gas industry after backers pitched for a share of $20 million in development funding at a venturing day hosted by OGCI Climate Investments.
With Washington DC hosting the triennial World Gas Conference, 10 companies travelled to the US capital to make their pitches to an audience of several dozen representatives from the oil and gas industry, the investment community and academia.
Speaking at the start of what he described as the first of many such venturing days, Oil and Gas Climate Initiative chair and BP group chief executive Bob Dudley said:
“Today is all about identifying environmentally sustainable solutions that also create exciting commercial opportunities.”
Citing estimates that the oil and gas industry is currently losing around $30 billion a year through methane leakage, Dudley said, “There is an opportunity of real scale for breakthrough technologies that can help with detection, measurement and mitigation of methane.”
The OGCI will announce which technologies will receive funding in September, at its annual CEO event in New York. Alongside the investment, companies will have the opportunity to connect with OGCI partners, gain technical expertise, and pilot and deploy their technologies.
“It’s a novel approach,” said Dudley, “and one that we hope will help to make a lot of progress in a short amount of time — taking promising technologies into and through the vital piloting and deployment stages.”