IOGP Europe welcomes EU Energy Ministers’ call for Inclusion of the EU Methane Regulation in upcoming Energy Omnibus

“We welcome Energy Ministers’ call for alignment of the EU Methane Regulation with the simplification agenda. Our industry remains strongly committed to reducing methane emissions, however this Regulation is simply disconnected from operational and geopolitical realities.

Let’s be clear, this isn’t about pleasing specific supplier countries: it’s about avoiding self-imposed risks to Europe’s own security of supply. By imposing disproportionate and unworkable requirements for domestic production and imports, the Regulation would lead to reduced EU supply options and increased costs for compliant molecules.

These issues cannot be solved through secondary legislation, and we remain ready to work constructively with the Commission on targeted adjustments to the Regulation itself through the Energy Omnibus; if we don’t do so, we risk regulatory failure” said François-Régis Mouton, Managing Director of IOGP Europe.

IOGP Europe strongly supports the EU's ambitious goal of reducing methane emissions and remains committed to enhancing environmental performance across the energy value chain. We recognize the critical role of effective methane management in addressing climate change and advancing the sustainability of our industry. However, we are concerned that some provisions within the Regulation may inadvertently create compliance burdens that are disproportionate to the actual environmental impact, potentially leading to unintended consequences.

In particular, we believe that these provisions could undermine the EU’s energy security, particularly at a time when strengthening the EU’s energy supply is of strategic importance.

Our key concerns include:

• Domestic requirements set by Chapter 3 inadvertently create obligations that are not technically implementable (e.g., quantification of methane emissions subsea), require disproportionate efforts with negligible environmental impact (e.g., LDAR surveys with repair thresholds of 1g/h), dismiss technology neutrality principle (e.g., criteria prohibiting the use of continuous methane emissions monitoring systems), and/or ignore operational realities (e.g., flare stack upgrades). Without timely intervention, the remaining domestic oil and gas production in Europe will decline at an accelerated pace, further increasing the EU's vulnerability to global energy market volatility and geopolitical developments.
• Importer requirements set by Chapter 5 introduce a new layer of compliance risks and contractual complexities for LNG importers, which are likely to increase financial and operational burdens along the energy supply chains, leading to reduced supply options for the EU and increased costs for compliant molecules. This is in contradiction with the Affordable Energy Action Plan and the general objective of the EU’s energy security architecture. The importer requirements do not fully account for the complexities of global energy trade and intricate value chains, as well as operational realities. If fundamental challenges are not properly adjusted (e.g., MRV equivalence criteria, implementation timeline, lack of technical details), importer requirements could jeopardise the EU’s sourcing flexibility of affordable energy.

Our aim is to assist in the streamlining of the regulatory framework, ensuring that it remains both implementable and fit to ensure the competitiveness of European industries in a rapidly evolving global market.

Our full set of targeted adjustment proposals to the Regulation can be accessed below. These seek to ensure that environmental objectives are aligned with technically feasible and effective implementation, while safeguarding the EU’s energy security.

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