Oil major Exxon Mobil Corp said on Thursday it is conducting field trials of eight methane detection technologies, including satellite monitoring, to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions.
The company said the pilot project is being carried out at nearly 1,000 sites in Texas and New Mexico using drones, planes, helicopters, ground-based mobile and fixed-position sensors.
"We are applying scientific rigor and taking aggressive steps to find commercially scalable and affordable solutions for all operators," said Staale Gjervik, senior vice president at ExxonMobil Upstream Oil and Gas Co.
All technologies and deployment methods will be used to detect leaks and identify solutions that can be shared with other oil and gas operators, the company added.
Last month, several oil and gas companies and trade associations in Texas, the biggest oil producing state in the United States, formed a coalition to develop and recommend solutions to minimize flaring and methane emissions.
Exxon Mobil had also called for tighter regulation of methane and offered up its own in-house rules as a model for companies and lawmakers worldwide.
The company laid out the guidelines it follows - some of which have been rolled back by the Trump administration - at a time when the industry faces growing pressure from investors to reduce its environmental footprint.
(Reporting by Shradha Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Ramakrishnan M.)
