1. TWG and Verification Advisory Group Comments on the First Draft of the Oil and Gas Production Sector Addendum to the General Verification Protocol
Oral Presentation
July 22, 2009
Presented by: Science Applications International Corporation
Presented for: Western Regional Air Partnership

2. Presentation Overview
Brief overview of comments
Detailed summary of comments on major verification issues:
Conflicts of Interest
Guidance for Selecting Sample Sizes

3. Brief Overview of Comments
Comments were received from 8 individuals, representing 8 organizations, including:
1 industry organization
TCR
6 members of TCR’s Verification Advisory Group (and Registry-recognized verification bodies)
Total number of comments: 25
Approximately one-third were of an editorial nature or simply indicated that the addendum adequately addressed a specific issue
Remaining comments (about 15) dealing with higher-level issues are the primary focus of the remainder of this presentation

4. Major Verification Issues
Verification Question: Is the generic guidance for selecting an appropriate sample size provided in the GVP applicable to the O&G sector?
It is not appropriate to treat each field as a single facility when selecting the sample of sites to be visited, as the variety of sources included in a field is too broad
The sample size should remain as is unless TCR has reason to believe this sector is more prone to errors (in which case the sample size should be increased)
In the UK we tend to apply a lower ratio of onsite visits because the data is centrally located
SAIC Question for TWG: Are the data generally centrally located in N. America?
In the UK there are often difficulties arranging visits to offshore facilities due to health and safety issues, and transportation availability
SAIC Question for TWG: Would these difficulties also apply in N. American offshore operations?
If contractors find out they will be included in the sampling plan, I doubt they will be willing to provide data
TCR should provide guidance on the percent of wells to be included in the sample size

5. Major Verification Issues
Verification Question: Do the standard COI rules in the GVP need to be expanded to address, e.g., the verifier’s relationships with partners of the TCR Member?
It will be near impossible to find a verifier without any relationships with JV partners
Care must be taken not to reduce the limited pool of verifiers unless the risk of COI is high
The standard COI rules should be fine, but the verifier should declare any relationship with other consortium members to enable TCR to make a judgment
The COI rules for consortium-type situations should be as stringent as possible, given that cap and trade is coming in the future
The COI rules need to be expanded, as major emission decisions may be based on TCR data—but am not sure how the verifier creates conflict, is the fear that that a verifier would pass on confidential info from one company to another?
If Scope 3 emissions are to be verified, relationships with contractors should be included in COI determination
It’s probably not practicable to have a separate verifier for each consortium member, instead recommend a minimum of two verifiers whenever there are multiple owner/operators