Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on March 11, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 24, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleConocoPhillips CEO Ryan Lance urges the US and Europe to align methane regulations to effectively tackle emissions and streamline energy policies.
HOUSTON (Reuters) - ConocoPhillips CEO Ryan Lance said on Tuesday that the United States and Europe should coordinate their regulations on methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.
"We can't have the European Union and the U.S. trying to do something different, because they're interpreting the rules completely different," he said at the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston.
"Europe's trying to drive a different end game than what the U.S. is trying to drive. So that creates a lot of problems."
Both the U.S. and Europe have developed regulations intended to force oil and gas producers to slash emissions of methane, the most prevalent greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide that tends to leak into the atmosphere undetected from drill sites, gas pipelines and other oil and gas infrastructure.
Coordinating the regulations is important in part because the U.S. has become a large supplier of liquefied natural gas to Europe.
The United States became the world's top oil and gas producer after Russia's invasion of Ukraine led European countries to cut their dependence on Russian energy and seek other sources.
The U.S. Senate last month voted on a resolution that would overturn a proposed fee on methane emissions developed by former President Joe Biden’s administration, and there is a chance the Trump administration will seek to reverse other aspects of the Biden-era US methane regulations.
(Reporting by Sheila Dang; Writing by Richard Valdmanis, editing by Deepa Babington)
Ryan Lance emphasized that the United States and Europe should coordinate their regulations on methane to avoid differing interpretations and conflicting rules.
Coordinating regulations is important because the U.S. has become a significant supplier of liquefied natural gas to Europe, and differing regulations could create complications.
The U.S. Senate voted on a resolution to overturn a proposed fee on methane emissions that was developed by former President Joe Biden’s administration.
The United States became the world's top oil and gas producer after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which led European countries to reduce their dependence on Russian energy.
The differing goals create problems as they lead to conflicting regulatory approaches, complicating efforts to effectively reduce methane emissions.
Explore more articles in the Headlines category
