Oil and Gas Industry Navigates Emission Reduction Challenges
Decarbonization in the oil and gas sector has long been a pressing and highly debated topic among stakeholders. With 2025 being a milestone year for emissions targets, the question remains: will it mark a period of downward revisions, a continuation of the current trajectory, or a moment for companies to intensify their efforts? The direction and scale of change will ultimately determine whether these companies can achieve their intermediate emission targets and make meaningful progress towards broader net-zero commitments.
This year will be pivotal for measuring the oil and gas industry’s environmental progress, as several corporations have set 2025 as a benchmark for achieving interim reductions in Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions.
But the reality is that not all companies’ targets and data measurement methodologies are standardized and verified by third-party organizations. Furthermore, the complexity of these metrics — and the variability of reduction measures — can raise questions about the credibility and comparability of the targets.
Rystad Energy analyzes 120 key oil and gas companies, each of which has its own strategy for reducing emissions. These companies’ upstream operations collectively emitted more than 630 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions in 2024, representing around 58% of the industry’s total emissions last year.
The pressure to decarbonize has reshaped oil and gas company strategies in recent years, and most — from international majors to national oil companies (NOC) and regional players — publicly outlining their strategies and committing to various decarbonization pathways. This year will be a milestone for many: in our analysis, more than 20 companies have interim emission-reduction targets for 2025, especially in Scope 1 and 2. Several companies, based on the progress they reported, already achieved their intermediate 2025 targets back in 2023.
For example, BP, France’s TotalEnergies and US gas independent Expand Energy had already surpassed their targets as of 2023. BP, in particular, had reduced its absolute emissions by 41% that year, well above the targeted 20%, while Expand exceeded its target by 14%. At the same time, for the second consecutive year, BP’s absolute Scope 1 and 2 emissions have increased on a year-on-year basis. In 2024 Compared to 2023, emissions rose by 5%. The company attributes this increase primarily to the ramp-up or commencement of several projects in 2024, which begs the question of how long this reverse trend will continue, as the company is no longer planning to reduce its hydrocarbon output.
While target-setting is an important part of oil and gas company strategic plans, the starting points, actual performance, and understanding of how these reductions were achieved should be an essential part of their overall strategic decision-making process
Olga Savenkova, Head of Oil and Gas Sustainability Research
The chart below shows how different peer groups have managed to reduce their absolute and upstream emissions intensity since 2019.
Among the 120 key oil and gas companies selected, distinct segments can be categorized to assess their progress in reducing emissions over the last five years. We analyzed upstream CO? emissions and reduction trends from 2019 to 2023 across major company categories. For example, within the NOC/INOC group, European companies such as Equinor, OMV and MOL have substantially reduced their absolute emissions and lowered their emissions intensity. In contrast, Russian NOCs such as Gazprom and Rosneft have increased their emissions in both metrics since 2019. Similar disparities are observed in the regional company and global independent segments, illustrating how regional factors and operational environments influence emission-reduction outcomes.
The US and European majors segment stands out as the best-performing group. Highly scrutinized for their decarbonization efforts, these companies have implemented various strategies, including divestments, operational efficiency improvements, electrification, flaring reduction and methane emissions control. TotalEnergies, for example, has reduced emissions through combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) phase-outs, electrification, and eliminating routine flaring at assets such as OML 100 in Nigeria.
Decarbonization in the oil and gas sector has long been a pressing and highly debated topic among stakeholders. With 2025 being a milestone year for emissions targets, the question remains: will it mark a period of downward revisions, a continuation of the current trajectory, or a moment for companies to intensify their efforts? The direction and scale of change will ultimately determine whether these companies can achieve their intermediate emission targets and make meaningful progress towards broader net-zero commitments.
