Methane Emissions Mitigation in ASEAN's Energy Sector
6 July 2022
Highlights
Methane emissions are expected to rise steadily in ASEAN over the next decade. ASEAN’s energy sector accounted for 24.3% of the total methane emissions in the region in 2021. The International Energy Agency believes that it is potentially possible to reduce methane emissions from oil and gas operations by up to 75%.
Some of the challenges in mitigating methane emissions are due to a lack of proper equipment to track and measure the emissions. Others relate to the high costs and low returns of doing so, and the minimum policy framework.
Some ASEAN nations have methane emissions mitigation measures which are reflected in the updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).
Several major oil and gas firms have developed priority initiatives for methane emissions reduction through advanced technologies to detect the leakage, deployment of lower-emission technologies, standardisation of methane emissions accounting and waste-to-energy utilisation.
To effectively mitigate methane emissions, policymakers can develop knowledge transfer and capacity building to create a regulatory framework for methane reduction, and incentivise methane reduction technologies. Oil and gas firms should ramp up their efforts to retrofit oil and gas facilities.
