Overview

The development of the Natural Gas Sustainability Initiative (NGSI) was launched by the Edison Electric Institute (EEI)-American Gas Association (AGA) CEO Natural Gas Task Force in 2018. Recognizing the critical role of natural gas across the economy, EEI and AGA designed the NGSI along with facilitator MJ Bradley & Associates, an ERM Group company, to respond to the rising importance of climate change and sustainability for customers, investors, and other stakeholders. The NGSI Methane Emissions Intensity Protocol Version 1.0 was released in February 2021. EEI and AGA, together with facilitator SLR International Corporation, released the Version 2.0 in 2024 to incorporate updated emission factors and maintain consistent with other standardized approaches for calculating methane intensity.

NGSI is a voluntary, industry-wide approach for companies to calculate methane emissions intensity by segment—the Methane Emissions Intensity Protocol (Protocol). Developing a consistent, transparent, and comparable method for measuring and reporting methane emissions throughout the natural gas supply chain will improve the quality of information available from the industry and will help companies more effectively identify ways to reduce methane emissions and communicate progress. This is not meant to replace regulations, but to provide a meaningful tool to increase transparency and to facilitate improvements.

The NGSI Methane Emissions Intensity Protocol, Version 2.0, was released in September 2024. Version 2.0 remains aligned with the version of EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP) Subpart W regulations for Petroleum and Natural Gas Systems that were in effect as of January 1, 2024. Version 2.0 does not incorporate the recent revisions to Subpart W nor the GHGRP revisions to subparts other than Subpart W that take effect on January 1, 2025. These final GHGRP revisions will be incorporated, as applicable, into a subsequent update to the NGSI Protocol and its accompanying reporting templates. Version 2.0 includes a Protocol overview (PDF) and five data reporting templates (Excel spreadsheets), one for each of the following segments of the natural gas value chain: onshore production, gathering and boosting, processing, transmission and storage, and distribution. The resulting methane emissions intensity metric can be disclosed by EEI and AGA members on the EEI-AGA ESG Reporting Template as well as their company-specific sustainability webpage. Non-EEI and AGA members may consider disclosing the metric on their sustainability webpage.

NGSI Methane Emissions Intensity Protocol, Version 2.0

To streamline company reporting and facilitate consistent application of the protocol, NGSI has released a detailed set of five templates, one for each of the covered segments. The templates include data entry sheets for facilities with data that is reported to EPA as part of the GHGRP as well as sheets for facilities that fall below EPA’s data reporting threshold. Each template is prepopulated with emission sources, emission factors for non-GHGRP sources, and equations that automatically calculate segment-level methane emissions intensity.

NGSI Methane Emissions Intensity Protocol (version 2.0)

NGSI Reporting Template for Onshore Production (updated September 2024)

NGSI Reporting Template for Gathering & Boosting (updated September 2024)

NGSI Reporting Template for Processing (updated September 2024)

NGSI Reporting Template for Transmission & Storage (updated September 2024)

NGSI Reporting Template for Distribution (updated September 2024)

Staff Contacts

  • Bill Pfister
    Managing Director, Business Analytics and Energy Supply
    bpfister@eei.org
    202-508-5531
  • Huiyi Jackson
    Senior Director, Clean Energy Technologies and Policy
    hjackson@eei.org
    202-508-5250
  • Jennifer Golinsky Baseman
    American Gas Association
    jbaseman@aga.org
    202-824-7340