It Pays to Know Your Oil and Gas

The OCI+ tool reveals that global oil and gas resources vary by up to five times in life-cycle emissions intensity. The document emphasizes that supply-side emissions from production, refining, and transport can rival end-use consumption, making the identification of high-emitting assets critical for short-term climate action. It highlights methane reduction as the highest priority, noting that methane accounts for over half of operational emissions and advocating for the use of a 20-year global warming potential (GWP20) to accurately assess climate risks.

• Life-cycle emissions intensities for global oil and gas resources are highly heterogeneous, with some resources varying by as much as five times in their climate footprints.
• Supply-side emissions—including production, refining, processing, and shipping—can be as significant as emissions from the end-use consumption of petroleum, suggesting that cutting these emissions is a critical short-term priority.
• Methane reduction is the primary priority for the industry because it constitutes more than 50% of operational emissions and is over 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide over a ten-year period.
• The document advocates for the use of a 20-year global warming potential (GWP) to evaluate the sector, particularly to align with national pledges to reduce methane by 30% by 2030.
• Climate action in the sector is hindered by a lack of transparency and data issues, including costly input data and inconsistent or unverifiable self-reported emissions from countries and companies.

APA

RMI (2024). It Pays to Know Your Oil and Gas. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2023/03/it_pays_to_know_your_oil_and_gas.pdf

Chicago

RMI. It Pays to Know Your Oil and Gas. 2024. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2023/03/it_pays_to_know_your_oil_and_gas.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=RMI |title=It Pays to Know Your Oil and Gas |date=September 2024 |url=https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2023/03/it_pays_to_know_your_oil_and_gas.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rmi2024pays, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{It Pays to Know Your Oil and Gas}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2024}, month = sep, url = {https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2023/03/it_pays_to_know_your_oil_and_gas.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }