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Kinder Morgan details greenhouse gas cutback efforts in 1st ESG report

In its first stand-alone environmental, social and governance report, Kinder Morgan Inc. said it reduced emissions by more than 5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent over the previous three years and will report its companywide global greenhouse gas emissions starting in 2021.

The North American energy infrastructure giant designed its U.S. greenhouse gas emissions reporting to meet the requirements of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's emissions reporting programs, the company said in its 2017 ESG report, posted Oct. 30. It also said it is adding processes and procedures to meet the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board's midstream energy standard.

For its Canadian operations, Kinder Morgan already has its reporting procedures in place. Canadian subsidiary Kinder Morgan Canada Ltd. generates Scope 1 direct emissions from its pipeline and terminal operations and Scope 2 indirect emissions from electricity consumption. The company's emissions data showed that scope 1 and 2 emissions represent about 0.1% of Canada's 2016 oil and gas sector emissions, which came in at roughly 183 megatonnes of CO2e2. The results included Kinder Morgan Canada's discontinued operations.

Kinder Morgan participates in the EPA's Natural Gas STAR program, under which the company has reduced methane emissions by over 108 Bcf since 1993. The program provides participants with a framework to implement technologies and practices that cut emissions, along with documentation and reporting to the EPA.

As a founding member of the ONE Future Coalition, Kinder Morgan also committed to a target of 0.31% methane emissions per volume of throughput by 2025, and the company is scheduled to complete its first status report before the end of 2018.

Kinder Morgan plans to achieve its target methane emission reduction by lowering transmission pipeline blowdown volumes, which occur between compressor stations during planned maintenance or emergencies, and by implementing annual methane leak surveys and performing leak inspections and maintenance work at its natural gas transmission and storage compressor stations. Pipeline blowdowns are some of the largest sources of methane emissions from transmission lines.

Kinder Morgan intends to expand voluntary inspections by about 20% annually from 2017 to 2021.