ConocoPhillips Calls for US-Europe Coordination on Methane Regulations

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)