Pemex goes offline in oil industry’s largest climate organization

LONDON (Bloomberg) - Mexico’s state oil company Pemex is no longer an active participant in the largest climate-focused organization within the global oil and gas industry.

In its annual report published Wednesday, the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative mentioned only 12 members—one fewer than it had the previous year. Launched in 2014 in response to growing concerns about global warming, OGCI has an active member list that includes the likes of Saudi Aramco, China National Petroleum Corp., and Exxon Mobil Corp.; together, its members are responsible for 28% of the world’s oil and gas production.

“Pemex has not left the OGCI. However, the company has not actively participated in the initiative recently,” said an OGCI spokesperson. “We want to be careful to only communicate the commitments and reporting of active members.” A spokesperson for Pemex declined to comment.

Active Members

OGCI’s biggest project to date has been to set targets for the reduction of carbon dioxide and methane emissions from its member companies. It’s also created an investment arm that counts 19 projects and startups aimed at helping further low-carbon technologies, some of which aim to tackle emissions from cement and steel industry, as well.

The group’s newest progress report shows that growth in its members’ spending on green initiatives is slowing. In 2019—before the Covid-19 pandemic sent oil prices tumbling—the members spent only $800 million more on technologies such as solar power and carbon capture than they had the previous year, compared to an increase of $1.2 billion in 2018.

Not So Green

This year, many of OGCI’s members set goals to zero out their emissions within decades. “To achieve such goals, BNEF believes that their low-carbon spend will need to increase substantially,” wrote BloombergNEF oil analyst David Doherty.

OGCI’s membership has grown slightly since its launch, but this isn’t the first time it’s lost an active member. Indian giant Reliance Industries Ltd. left OGCI in 2018, the same year U.S. oil majors Exxon, Chevron Corp., and Occidental Petroleum Corp. joined the group.