50 oil and gas companies pledge to cut operational emissions

Saudi giant Aramco and ADNOC of the United Arab Emirates were among 29 national companies to sign a non-binding agreement that also envisaged zero methane emissions and eliminating routine flaring this decade.

Aramco, the world’s biggest oil company, and ADNOC, whose CEO Sultan Al Jaber is president of CO28, had already announced similar CO₂-reduction targets—which do not include emissions when their fuels are used by customers.

“While many national oil companies have adopted net-zero 2050 targets for the first time, I know that they and others, can and need to do more,” Jaber said.

Unlike the Western oil majors, which are intensely scrutinized by the public, few large national oil companies had announced such targets.

PetroChina and Brazil’s Petrobras also signed up to the new accord, named the Oil and Gas Decarbonization Charter.

The National Oil Company of Libya, Malaysia’s Petronas and Sonangol of Angola were also among the signatories, along with France’s TotalEnergies, US firm ExxonMobil, and Britain’s BP and Shell.

The charter is part of a set of initiatives designed to accelerate the decarbonization of the global energy industry, prepared in the year leading up to COP28.