Shell and Aker BP on Tuesday said their experts had left an advisory group drawing up a standard to help oil and gas firms set science-aligned emissions reduction targets and reach net zero by 2050.
Work on the oil and gas standard at the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) has since been paused, the body confirmed, while an expert from Canada’s Enbridge has also quit the advisory group behind it.
The key bone of contention, according to the UK’s Financial Times, was a stipulation within a draft standard that companies should not develop new oil and gas fields after submitting a climate plan to the SBTi, or by end-2027, whichever came first.
The draft specified that production of oil and gas was also supposed to fall significantly, according to the Financial Times, which first reported the SBTi pause.
Shell is targeting top-line oil and gas production growth of 1% annually through 2030, partly on the back of new field launches. Aker BP wants to grow output from 439,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2024 to around 525,000 boe/d in 2028 after the launch of its North Sea Yggdrasil field in 2027.
