The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) efforts and commitment to abate methane emissions in the oil and gas sector continues with the conduct of the 3^rd ASEAN Energy Sector Methane Leadership Program (MLP) Workshop held on 19 – 20 August 2024 in Bangkok, Thailand, hosted by PTTEP Thailand and organised by the USAID Southeast Asia Smart Power Program (SPP) in collaboration with the ASEAN Centre for Energy (ACE) and the ASEAN Council on Petroleum (ASCOPE).

Considering the ever-increasing energy demand and fossil fuels in the region, with the 7^th ASEAN Energy Outlook projecting the region’s energy demand to triple by 2050 with fossil fuels dominating the energy mix at 88 percent, energy-related greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) would exceed 7,000 Million CO₂-equivalents in 2050, raising environmental concerns.

In ASEAN, 15 percent of the energy-related GHG emissions ‘chunk’ is taken by methane, a climate pollutant with 28 times more warming effect than of carbon dioxide (on a 100-year timescale). To commit to the regional energy blueprint document, the ASEAN Plan of Action for Energy Cooperation (APAEC) strategy of accelerating energy transition whilst strengthening energy security, and to be in-line with the goals of the Paris Agreement, 69 attendees from 11 countries once again gathered at the 3^rd MLP Workshop to learn and discuss potential way forward in amplifying their methane emission abatement initiatives.

This Workshop marks the last series of workshops under the MLP 1.0. While the 1^st MLP Workshop held on November 2023 has aimed to introduce participants to methane emissions management and the Oil & Gas Methane Partnership 2.0 (OGMP 2.0), and the 2^nd MLP Workshop held on March 2024 in Bali, Indonesia discussed on the global policy landscape for methane emissions management and methane data management tools, the 3^rd MLP Workshop discussed on the tools for designing and financing methane mitigation projects.

Day 1 of the Workshop started with a panel discussion on capitalising opportunities and challenges for methane investment with panellists from MiQ, Honeywell, and U.S. Commercial Law Development Program (CLDP), followed by presentations by SLB on methane measurement technologies and designing methane reduction projects. Honeywell also presented on the types of the methane reduction projects and marginal abatement cost curve. Chevron Thailand went on to provide examples of the methane mitigation approach in the Gulf of Thailand. Moreover, CLDP talked more about methane financing and addressing the legal and regulatory hurdles for methane financing. Day 1 also facilitated a preliminary interactive exercise to develop a methane abatement project based on the provided case study of a hypothetical company.

Day 2 started with a panel discussion on how to leverage global capital markets to drive emissions reduction with panellists from PIMCO and EDF. This is followed by presentations from USTDA, The World Bank, and JP Morgan on their institution’s financing funding solutions, processes, and structures for methane abatement projects. Moreover, MiQ also touched upon the role of certifications and verifications in methane financing. The Interactive exercise build from Day 1 continues in Day 2, with participants having to develop a more concrete proposal of their proposed projects, including its budgeting, and to pitch their proposal to a panel of judges who will be representing financial institutions (SLB, CLDP, JP Morgan, Honeywell, and USAID SPP). The judges then awarded “funding” to successful proposals and provided feedback to the pitches.

Overall, the 3^rd MLP Workshop successfully awarded 35 with certificates based on their pre and post-test learning results from the Workshop, which demonstrated the participants improved knowledge and understanding on the tools for financing and designing methane mitigation pilot projects.

As the MLP 1.0 comes to an end, the closing ceremony of MLP 1.0 and the launch of MLP 2.0 will take place on 2 – 3 October 2024 at the PETRONAS Leadership Centre, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. With the aim of the MLP 2.0 to move forward from “capacity to action”, the MLP 2.0 Workshop on 3 October will explore various methane technology demonstrations.

Materials from the 3^rd MLP Workshop can be downloaded from here.

Learn more about MLP: Factsheet MLP

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• 1st ASEAN Energy Sector Methane Leadership Program (MLP) Workshop
• 2nd ASEAN Energy Sector Methane Leadership Program (MLP) Workshop