Natural gas companies are hoping to earn a premium with their ESG practices

“Typically, an MMBTU is an MMBTU, there’s not really any pricing difference for those types of attributes,” said Peter Schriber, vice-president of market development at Xpansiv, but added the ability to prove your fuels are produced to a higher standard may eventually allow producers to demand a premium for their natural gas, which is a fungible commodity. “If you are making a decision that you want to make better procurement practices, it comes back to consumers wanting to know how their gas was made,” Schriber said. “My certificate can ultimately be unpacked. I can unpack that all the way back to production that happened on a certain day.”

Right now, the company’s digital fuels registry is focused on natural gas trades but Schriber said there is potential to expand its offering to other commodities like crude oil as buyers become increasingly focused on emissions reductions.