When oil and gas wells are abandoned, they still continue to leak methane. And now, a new publicly traded company in Canada is aiming to capture those emissions and turn them into carbon credits.
What’s happening:
- Methane emission reduction company Zefiro Methane (CBOE:ZEFI) has officially begun trading on the Cboe Canada
The big idea:
- There are millions of abandoned oil and gas wells across the United States that leak methane emissions into the environment
- Zefiro Methane plugs these oil and gas wells to reduce their overall methane emissions
- Zefiro is then able to turn the verifiable reduction of methane into high quality carbon credits which can be sold into the carbon credit offset market
By the numbers:
- The United States Inflation Reduction Act has imposed a penalty of $900 per metric ton of methane emissions for oil and gas companies, which incentivizes energy companies to urgently address methane leaks within their operations
- In the Untied States there are currently more than 1M abandoned oil and gas wells leaking methane across 26 different states
Why it matters:
- Finding innovative ways to meaningfully reduce methane emissions is one of the fastest growing areas of climate tech, with notable venture funds and even Bill Gates backing new startups focused on methane reduction technology
Going deeper:
- Zefiro has established a pre sale offtake agreement with multinational commodity trading company Mercuria Energy America to purchase the carbon credits being generated by Zefiro from reducing methane emissions at orphaned oil and gas wells
