"NEW YORK -- Six international energy companies have agreed to work to reduce emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, in partnership with more than a dozen national governments through a new United Nations framework, according to executives and officials familiar with the program.

Britain's BG Group PLC, Italy's ENI SpA, Mexico's Pemex, Thailand's PTT PCL, Norway's Statoil, and Southwestern Energy Co.of Houston are signing on to a voluntary program to monitor and disclose their methane emissions in what officials see as an initial step to curtail leakage of a gas seen as a major contributor to climate change.

Methane is a primary component of natural gas that frequently escapes into the atmosphere during drilling or transmission of oil and natural gas. The Obama administration has said it has a warming effect more than 20 times greater than carbon dioxide."

William Mauldin, Amy Harder, and Erin Ailworth report for the Wall Street Journal September 22, 2014. [2]