ONGC eyes 4 lakh carbon credits

Oil & Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), India's biggest exploration company, may generate 400,000 carbon credits a year by 2012 as it cuts the output of gases blamed for global warming at its oil fields, an official said.

ONGC has registered four projects with the United Nations-backed carbon credits programme, has five being validated and 10 in planning, AB Chakraborty, head of the carbon management group of the company, said at a conference today in Singapore.

India accounts for the second-highest number of certified emission reduction credits by volume, at 25.16 per cent from 358 Clean Development Mechanism projects, he said. China leads with 36.48 per cent, generating more credits from fewer projects by cutting refrigerant gases in addition to carbon dioxide.

The so-called Clean Development Mechanism, created under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, is the world's second-biggest emissions trading market, after the European Union's carbon dioxide programme.

The credits are measured in equivalent metric tonnes of carbon dioxide, the main heat-trapping gas blamed by scientists for climate change.

ONGC has registered two projects that reduce flaring of gases at Uran and Hazira, Chakraborty said.

Certified emission reduction credits can be used by factories and power stations in the European Union carbon-trading market as an alternative to EU permits handed out by national governments. Countries including Japan also buy them to comply with targets under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, an agreement between nations to curb climate change.