Environmentalists: Oil and gas companies are expanding rapidly
Despite all the cries of alarm about global warming, the vast majority of oil and gas companies want to greatly expand their climate-damaging production, according to a new data analysis. This applies to 96 percent of the 700 production companies recorded in the public database Global Oil & Gas Exit List (GOGEL), the nature conservation organization Urgewald and a further 50 NGO partners announced in Berlin on Wednesday. The state-owned oil and gas company Adnoc of the United Arab Emirates also has short-term expansion plans. The Gulf state will host the UN Climate Change Conference in Dubai from the end of November.
According to the data, a total of 1023 companies are planning new liquefied natural gas terminals, pipelines or gas-fired power plants. Nils Bartsch from Urgewald said that the scale of the expansion plans was frightening. In order to contain global warming to a tolerable level, oil and gas production must be reduced quickly, he said. "Instead, the industry is ensuring that the climate crisis continues to worsen."
According to Urgewald, the database contains 1623 companies that produce oil and gas or develop new fossil fuel infrastructure such as terminals for liquefied natural gas (LNG), oil and gas pipelines or gas-fired power plants. The companies listed are responsible for 95 percent of global oil and gas production.
Business as usual
The list also includes 539 companies that are currently working on bringing a total of 230 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe) from previously untapped oil and gas fields into production in the short term. One barrel of oil equivalent corresponds to around 159 liters. The seven companies with the largest short-term expansion plans are Saudi Aramco (16.8 billion boe), QatarEnergy (16.5), Russia's Gazprom Group (10.7), Petrobras from Brazil (9.6), Adnoc based in the United Arab Emirates (9.0), TotalEnergies (8.0) and ExxonMobil (7.9). "These seven companies alone are responsible for a third of the imminent oil and gas expansion plans," the press release states.
On the plans of the Adnoc Group from the United Arab Emirates, Urgewald writes: "While Adnoc Group CEO Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber will chair the World Climate Summit in Dubai starting at the end of November, his company is on a direct collision course with the 1.5-degree target." Only recently, Adnoc announced a final investment decision for a huge gas project called Hail & Ghasha. The project is to be built in the Marawah Biosphere Reserve, which is home to many endangered species and is the largest marine protected area in the Arabian Gulf, Urgewald criticized.
The United Nations Climate Change Conference is scheduled to take place in Dubai at the end of November, with the Gulf state being hosted by the state-owned oil and gas company Adnoc, which has expansion plans. Despite the urgent need to reduce oil and gas production to contain global warming, according to Urgewald, 1023 companies are planning new liquefied natural gas terminals, pipelines, or gas-fired power plants, continuing the industry's contribution to the worsening climate crisis.
Source: www.dpa.com
