The European Commission said on Thursday it had asked 44 oil and gas companies to contribute to the EU's collective target of storing at least 50 million tonnes of CO2 per year by 2030, as part of the bloc's aim to achieve climate neutrality.
The companies are required to participate to the EU target in proportion to their share of the Union's crude oil and natural gas production from 2020 and 2023, the Commission said in a statement.
"Having extracted hydrocarbons and contributing to greenhouse gas emissions, (the European oil and gas industry) will now contribute to storing CO2 and help mitigate climate change," said Kurt Vandenberghe, head of the Commission's directorate general for climate action.
"By combining their industrial know-how with faster permitting processes and robust financial support - including from the ETS-resourced Innovation Fund - we can make substantial progress in advancing industrial decarbonisation and modernisation in Europe," he added.
(Reuters - Reporting by Benoit Van Overstraeten; Editing by GV De Clercq)