EQT Corp. has committed to obtaining ESG certification for a majority of its produced natural gas through the launch of a new project by the Appalachia shale producer on April 15.

These certifications will expand EQT’s growing portfolio of “certified natural gas,” also referred to as “responsibly sourced gas,” having previously announced in January a separate project with Project Canary to certify gas produced from two of its wellpads, located in southwestern Pennsylvania.

“We received a tremendous amount of market interest following our announcement in January that we would be seeking certification of a portion of our natural gas production,” Toby Rice, EQT’s president and CEO, said in a statement.

This time around, EQT said it has tapped Equitable Origin and MiQ to oversee an independent, third-party audited assessment of the company’s natural gas production from selected wellpads focusing on ESG performance, including methane emissions.

Equitable Origin is a non-profit organization with a proven track record of certifying energy companies on ESG indicators in accordance with its EO100™ Standard for Responsible Energy Development, a set of rigorous ESG performance standards for energy development projects.

Meanwhile, MiQ is an independent, not-for-profit partnership between RMI and SYSTEMIQ aiming to facilitate a rapid reduction in methane emissions from the natural gas sector. The company has developed a universally applicable certification standard—the MiQ Standard—for credibly assessing the methane performance of natural gas production. For EQT’s certification project, MiQ said it will also include the certificates issued by Equitable Origin in its registration process.

Under the proposed project, EQT plans to obtain Equitable Origin and MiQ certification of the natural gas produced from over 200 of its wellpads located in Pennsylvania’s Greene and Washington counties, which collectively produce approximately 4 Bcf/d from the wellhead (gross volume).

Following completion of the certification projects, EQT said it will be producing more certified gas than any other U.S. producer’s entire natural gas production (certified or uncertified). EQT’s certified natural gas production will comprise 4.5% of all natural gas produced in the U.S., according to a release by the company.

“We are committed to the highest standards of performance for our production operations,” Rice continued in his statement, “and we believe that obtaining certification from Equitable Origin and MiQ will enable us to further demonstrate our commitment to producing our natural gas in accordance with high environmental and social standards, and differentiate our gas in the market.”

The certification process with Equitable Origin and MiQ is expected to commence in April with certification anticipated later this year.

EQT is committing to produce certified gas under the Equitable Origin and MiQ certification standards initially for a one-year period in order to further explore the market for these differentiated natural gas products, the company release said.

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