The Environmental Partnership, a coalition of oil and natural gas producers formed to accelerate improvements to environmental performance in U.S. onshore operations, said Wednesday it has expanded its membership to midstream companies.

The addition of pipeline companies has more than tripled the organization’s membership to 83 participants. The Environmental Partnership was formed in December 2017.

“From large integrated global companies to smaller independent energy firms, and for the first time including midstream members, this partnership shows our industry stands ready to tackle the nation’s energy challenges while providing affordable, reliable and cleaner energy,” said American Petroleum Institute (API) CEO Mike Sommers.

The expansion was announced side by side with the release of The Environmental Partnership’s second annual report, highlighting the industry’s progress in reducing emissions of methane and volatile organic compounds (VOC).

Highlights from the report include:

  • More than 184,000 surveys conducted at 87,000 production sites found that of the more than 116 million component inspections performed, only 0.08% of the components needed repair — 10 times lower than Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates;
  • More than 3,300 high-bleed pneumatic controllers have been replaced, retrofitted or removed from service by companies participating in the program; and
  • Through the partnership’s Manual Liquids Unloading Program, more than 44,000 manual liquids unloading events were monitored in 2019, minimizing their duration and the emissions associated with these actions.

Between 2011 and 2018, industry actions led to a nearly 70% decline in methane emission rates across five of the largest producing regions across the United States, even as natural gas production in those regions tripled over the period, according to the partnership.