Gazprom prepared to share data with critical environmentalists from Kayrros, set on "objective cooperation"

MOSCOW. Dec 7 (Interfax) - Gazprom is ready to share data on its emissions and methodological approaches with specialists from Kayrros, which studies greenhouse gas emissions, and hopes for "objective cooperation," Gazprom's energy conservation and environment chief Alexander Ishkov said at the 7th international "Environmental Safety in the Gas Industry" (ESGI-2021) conference at Gazprom VNIIGAZ LLC.

Kayrros spearheaded a series of high-profile publications in the international press about methane emissions, including in the Russian gas industry. "Dirty Russian gas keeps Europe warm," "European politicians appear at COP26 talks as climate heroes, but the continent is heavily dependent on natural gas, which is accompanied by super-powerful methane emissions," "Powerful greenhouse gas cloud found near Russian gas pipeline," were among the headlines published by leading media organizations preceding the climate summit in Glasgow. Ishkov assessed that such publications were, among other things, "politically biased and anti-Russian."

The VNIIGAZ conference was attended by Antoine Halff, founder and chief analyst of Kayrros & Senior Scholar. He came to Russia, to the VNIIGAZ office in Razvilka, near Moscow, in person, rather than joining the conference via video link.

In commenting on Halff's presentation, Ishkov said, "I hope that you will cooperate - we will ask VNIIGAZ and Gazprom Space Systems - and, if you are willing, conclude a corresponding agreement, agreements on information exchange, on methodologies, if you are interested. I hope you will find people from VNIIGAZ and Gazprom Space Systems with whom you will cooperate."

"From our point of view we will only support exactly scientific objective cooperation in this regard. I would like to wish for your work, your conclusions to not all be so politically biased, that you do not feel political pressure to interpret and obtain those results that are published. For our part, we are always determined to make sure that the data we present is reliable and objective. But the tendency which unfortunately exists due to competitive and political contradictions does not help to objectively approach climate aspects", the Gazprom executive said.

Earlier in October, Novatek signed an agreement with Kayrros "on a joint pilot project to improve the methodology for tracking, detecting, monitoring and measuring methane emissions at Novatek's fields.

Regarding the emissions cases mentioned by Kayrros, Ishkov said that Gazprom had checked all this data and had nothing to hide: "We are talking about work related to safety during repair work, because repair work cannot, of course, be carried out if there is methane in the pipes."

"At present we have done a lot in this regard, I can say that just a few days ago there was a kind of, well, not an anniversary, of course, but a reference point - 1 billion cubic meters of gas were saved during repairs with the help of mobile compressor stations as of November 1 of this year. And we are now buying five more such mobile compressor stations," Ishkov said. In this regard, Halff spoke in favor of an independent verification of the methodology of the use these mobile stations.