13.06.2025

IOGP Europe call for inclusion of the Methane Emissions Regulation in the forthcoming Energy Omnibus Package

IOGP Europe supports the European Commission's simplification efforts as outlined by President von der Leyen’s Political Guidelines 2024-2029 and reaffirmed in the Budapest declaration of November 2024, underlining that regulatory simplification is a central and urgent political priority for this Commission. To this end, we have developed proposals for targeted adjustments to the EU Methane Emissions Regulation that should be addressed by the upcoming Energy Omnibus.

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.2 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. Targeted adjustments to the Regulation are necessary to ensure that the environmental objectives are aligned with technically feasible and effective implementation. For the purpose of simplifying the EU regulatory framework, please find below a set of concrete proposals for immediate legislative action.

These proposals aim not only to support the European Commission's sustainability objectives but also to ensure that changes to the EU Methane Regulation are implemented in a way that safeguards the EU’s energy security.

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