Tulsa-based pipeline giant Williams has joined the natural gas industry’s Our Nation’s Energy Future Coalition (ONE Future), which is working to reduce methane emissions across the value chain.

ONE Future collaborates with academia and policymakers to voluntarily reduce emissions with an overarching goal is to “minimize methane emissions at every point in the U.S. natural gas supply chain…” The goal is to sustain more than 99% efficiency across operations.

After achieving its goal of reducing methane emissions across member companies’ facilities by 1% of total gas production, the organization now is working to increase membership.

“ONE Future members have developed a unique private-public partnership” under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Methane Challenge, “whereby members have the option to participate in the program and demonstrate credible and measurable results by estimating their methane emissions and tracking their progress toward the coalition’s 1% methane intensity goal,” the organization said.

Williams is the 17th company to join the ONE Future since its inception in 2014. The science-based organization was conceived after eight companies collectively agreed to reduce methane emissions. With Williams now on board, ONE Future can claim to have one of the largest pipeline operators in North America participating.

“Williams is a strong addition to our coalition,” said executive director Richard Hyde. “Their proven dedication to environmental stewardship should provide good thought leadership for the organization’s growth as we work to identify new methods for reducing methane emissions.”

ONE Future’s members, which include exploration and production companies and pipeline operators, in most of the North American production basins.

Members include Antero Resources Corp., Apache Corp., Berkshire Hathaway Pipeline Group, BHP, Dominion Energy, Equinor ASA, EQT Corp., Hess Corp., Kinder Morgan Inc., National Grid, New Jersey Natural Gas, Noble Energy Inc., Southern Company Gas, Southwestern Energy Co., Summit Utilities and TC Energy.

Williams owns and operates roughly 30,000 miles of gas pipelines across the nation, including the Transcontinental Gas Pipeline, aka Transco.

Since 2012, Williams has reportedly reduced methane emissions from its processing plants and transmission compressor stations by 53%. At the same time, it said it has increased throughput by 21%.

Last month, Williams was granted permission by federal regulators to move forward with the Northeast Supply Enhancement project after three years of environmental opposition, a system that would provide 400,000 Dth/d to National Grid, the largest gas distributor in the Northeast.