For several years, the methane emissions landscape has been characterized by lots of activity and not much alignment. Measurement programs have expanded, reporting frameworks multiplied, and expectations have multiplied in myriad directions. A lot has been happening, but it was not always clear how the pieces fit together or how operators were supposed to respond in a durable way.
In 2025, that began to shift. The methane problem did not get simpler, but the direction of travel has become more uniform. Regulatory requirements, voluntary frameworks, and buyer expectations have started to converge around a smaller set of core ideas. That convergence has shaped how we at Highwood approached our work in 2025 and how we think about what comes next.
The most important development we observed in 2025 was increasing alignment across methane standards and regulations. OGMP 2.0 continues to serve as an international reference point, particularly for how inventories, measurements, and uncertainty are handled. Regulations from Colorado to the European Union to Canada have evolved to point either explicitly towards OGMP 2.0, or update rules to align with it.
Importing regions are reinforcing this alignment. The EU Methane Regulation is the most striking and impactful example, but interest is taking shape in the UK and parts of Asia. The common thread is comparability. Importers want methane data that can be understood, defended, and compared across jurisdictions, rather than bespoke claims tailored to unfamiliar local regulations (or lack thereof).
Independent verification is increasingly part of that picture. We’re in the early days of auditability for measurement-informed inventories, but the need is clear. Reported methane performance needs to withstand external scrutiny. For operators supplying international buyers, this is becoming less about signaling and more about maintaining market access and flexibility.
Where Highwood was focused in 2025
Automating measurement informed inventories (MIIs) was a major focus in 2025, particularly addressing the gap between conceptual guidance and operational reality. In January, we launched Highwood’s Emissions Intelligence Platform (EIP). The motivation was practical: as methane data becomes central to commercial discussions, one-off project tooling stops working. Operators need systems that can integrate multiple data types, support repeatable workflows, and stand up to audit and verification.
EIP now underpins our managed services and compliance work. It brings together data from a wide variety of both site- and source-level measurement technologies, bottom-up inventories, and reconciliation workflows in a single analytical environment.
Using that foundation, we supported eight operators through OGMP 2.0 reporting at Gold Standard or Pathway level, with a 100% success rate. Across all Highwood projects, we worked with more than 50 companies representing over 10% of global oil and gas production. That scale matters because it exposed our team of experts to patterns in the data: common challenges and recurring decision points.
We led dozens of collaborative workshops and customer sessions focused on data selection, reconciliation pathways, and uncertainty tradeoffs. A recurring theme was that more data does not automatically lead to better outcomes. In some cases, additional measurements meaningfully improve credibility. In others, they add complexity and cost without resolving underlying uncertainty.
2025 was also a year of internal maturation at Highwood. We grew the team by roughly 30%, nearly doubling our consulting and software engineering capacity, and building out marketing, sales, and quality assurance. We also clarified leadership roles to support scaling without compromising technical rigor. And we just moved into a beautiful new office!
Where Highwood will be focused in 2026
Looking ahead, the trajectory is becoming easier to interpret, even if the details are still evolving. Harmonization across standards is likely to continue. Independent verification will soon be table stakes. Supply chains will increasingly expect emissions data to bundle with molecules, particularly in LNG and international transactions.
As the EU Methane Regulation is implemented, its verification requirements will influence producer behavior around the world. In a market where LNG is increasingly sold on a spot or short-term basis, cargo flexibility depends on being able to access a variety of major markets. If a cargo cannot meet EU methane requirements, that flexibility is reduced.
In practice, this could create an incentive for producers to meet EU requirements even when Europe is not the expected destination, simply to preserve optionality. Over time, that dynamic may push verified methane performance data upstream across a much larger share of global LNG and oil supply than would be required to serve Europe alone.
Differentiated gas markets have struggled with fragmented and inconsistent demand. If the EU Methane Regulation succeeds in catalyzing a credible, independently verifiable approach to methane performance, it could change that dynamic. A massive regulatory market for methane certificates would not only support regulatory compliance, but could also be used by industrial buyers, utilities, and data center operators seeking more credible Scope 3 emissions data.
Our focus going into next year is to help clients respond to these signals in a practical way. That includes enabling harmonization, facilitating independent verification, and using the data operators already collect to generate more and better insights for their business.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you to our team, our customers, our partners, and everyone who has collaborated with us in 2025. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime privilege to be able to work with such brilliant people on a challenge of such critical importance.
And I’m so excited for 2026. Let’s go!
