Executive summary

Cutting greenhouse gas emissions from oil and gas operations is one of the most immediate opportunities to reduce the sector’s climate impact. Global methane emissions from the sector remain close to 80 million tonnes per year, while gas flaring increased to nearly 170 billion cubic metres in 2025. There is substantial scope to reduce these emissions using measures and technologies available today. Cutting methane emissions would limit near-term warming while reducing energy waste and strengthening energy security. Eliminating routine flaring represents another important opportunity to avoid unnecessary emissions. Against this backdrop, many companies in the oil and gas industry have announced commitments to reduce methane, eliminate routine flaring, achieve net zero operational emissions, and boost investment in clean energy technologies.

The IEA, UNEP's IMEO and EDF developed a framework of 25 metrics to track the progression from targets, through strategies for implementation, to disclosure of investment, emissions and progress. This second assessment applies the framework to 113 of the world's largest oil and gas companies, together accounting for around 80% of global oil and gas production. It assesses what companies publicly disclose about their commitments, implementation plans and performance.

The assessment investigates the transparency and demonstrated implementation readiness of companies. Credible progress requires companies to identify and measure their emissions, understand where reductions can be achieved, develop implementation and investment plans, allocate resources, and transparently report both their actions and their results. Public disclosure is not an end in itself, nor is it a substitute for emissions reductions. However, it provides the information to assess whether companies are putting in place the strategies, investment and measurement systems that can turn commitments into measurable emissions reductions, and to track whether those reductions are ultimately being achieved.

Our new assessment shows some progress from the industry as a whole but highlights a substantial gap between the various commitments that companies have made and the publicly available evidence that they are being implemented. The average company score increased from 9 in 2023 to 10 based on companies' latest reporting, with performance improving on average for 18 of the 25 metrics. The greatest progress has been in strategies for implementation, with companies doing more to identify methane emissions

sources, quantify abatement opportunities and assess mitigation options. However, detailed investment plans and evidence connecting these activities with expected emissions reductions remain much less widespread.

Performance remains very uneven across companies. Forward-looking companies show what can be achieved, with members of the Oil and Gas Methane Partnership 2.0, Oil and Gas Decarbonization Charter and the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative achieving significantly higher assessment scores than their peers, including across several metrics not directly linked to membership in these initiatives. Eight of the ten highest-scoring companies are OGCI members. In contrast, eighteen of the companies assessed published no sustainability report covering any of the three reporting years from 2023 to 2025.

The foundations for further progress are strengthening, but greater transparency and implementation readiness have not yet translated into clear evidence of emissions reductions across the industry. Self-reported methane and operational greenhouse gas emissions show little overall difference between 2023 and 2025. Reported flaring declined, but this contrasts with independent estimates pointing to rising global flaring, highlighting the continuing importance of strengthening measurement and independent data. Historical investments in clean energy and operational emissions reductions show an increase among companies providing this information, while forward-looking investment plans remain relatively rare.

The task at hand is to convert commitments and improved disclosure into demonstrated implementation and measurable emissions reductions. Companies can strengthen confidence in their commitments by setting out quantified emissions reduction pathways; providing clearer evidence of the investment and actions supporting them; improving measurement and disclosure of emissions; extending emissions management to non-operated assets and joint ventures; and consistently reporting progress and outcomes. Doing so would allow companies, governments, investors and civil society to move beyond assessing ambition towards determining the extent to which the oil and gas industry's own commitments are being translated into real emissions reductions.