The EU’s Methane Regulation Must Include Supply Chain Emissions and the Petrochemical Sector

This briefing from the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) argues that the European Union's upcoming methane regulation must encompass the petrochemical sector and the entire supply chain of fossil fuel imports. The document highlights a growing trade in natural gas liquids (NGLs), specifically ethane and propane, from the United States to Europe to fuel plastics production, which the author contends undermines EU climate goals and bypasses domestic fracking bans.

• The European Union's pivot toward using fracked gas from the United States as feedstock for its plastics industry threatens to undermine its emissions reduction objectives and exacerbate plastic pollution.
• US steam cracking capacity, used to convert ethane into ethylene and plastic, grew from 26 million tons per year (tpy) in 2005 to 45 million tpy in 2021, with plans as of October 2021 to add another 9.1 million tpy.
• Seven European countries—France, Bulgaria, The Netherlands, Germany, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and Spain—have banned or placed moratoria on fracking, yet some facilities using US ethane and propane to produce plastic are located in these countries.
• The supply chain for US fracked gas used in European plastics begins with extraction in the Permian (Texas and New Mexico), Eagle Ford (Texas), and Appalachian (Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia) basins, followed by pipeline transport to ports and ocean shipping.
• Specific companies are identified as key players in the transatlantic NGL trade: Ineos and Enterprise Products Partners are primary ethane shippers, while INEOS, Borealis, and Dow Chemical are primary petrochemical users of these imports in Europe.
• The European Commission's October 2020 methane strategy for the energy sector includes required pillars for measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV), leak detection and repair (LDAR), and a ban on routine venting and flaring, but lists extension to the petrochemical sector and full supply chain coverage as optional.
• In October 2021, the European Parliament passed a resolution requesting that the Commission include feedstock uses of fossil gas and oil for petrochemicals in the methane regulation and ensure MRV, LDAR, and venting/flaring rules apply equally to this sector.

APA

Center for International Environmental Law (2021). The EU’s Methane Regulation Must Include Supply Chain Emissions and the Petrochemical Sector. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/21.12.2.6-pager_EU-Methane-Regulation-Backgrounder.pdf

Chicago

Center for International Environmental Law. The EU’s Methane Regulation Must Include Supply Chain Emissions and the Petrochemical Sector. 2021. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/21.12.2.6-pager_EU-Methane-Regulation-Backgrounder.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Center for International Environmental Law |title=The EU’s Methane Regulation Must Include Supply Chain Emissions and the Petrochemical Sector |date=25 November 2021 |url=https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/21.12.2.6-pager_EU-Methane-Regulation-Backgrounder.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{centerforinternationalenvironmentallaw2021eus, author = {{Center for International Environmental Law}}, title = {{The EU’s Methane Regulation Must Include Supply Chain Emissions and the Petrochemical Sector}}, institution = {Center for International Environmental Law}, year = {2021}, month = nov, url = {https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/21.12.2.6-pager_EU-Methane-Regulation-Backgrounder.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }