A Colorado startup that led a push to help companies market their natural gas as more environmentally friendly is shuffling leaders and shifting its business strategy amid questions about the approach.

Project Canary, the Denver-based company that had signed up customers including Chevron Corp. and Southwestern Energy Co., will now be led by co-CEOs Tim Romer and Will Foiles, according to a statement from a Project Canary spokesman. Longtime CEO Chris Romer has left the post and become executive chairman of Project Canary’s board, the spokesman said.

The personnel shift comes as Project Canary focuses more squarely on measuring methane leaks at oil and gas operations rather than pushing certifications that seek to attest that individual sites have lower-emission profiles, a person familiar with the matter said. The company described the changes in an email to customers obtained by Bloomberg News, and it posted a Denver Business Journal article about the pivot on its website Tuesday.

“With this leadership transition, measurement, precision and scientific rigor will continue to be core to the company’s business,” the company said in an emailed statement. “Our management changes further advance the significant investments over made the past two years made to enhance our solutions.”

US regulators are already moving to tighten requirements for detecting leaks of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, from oil and gas equipment. US Department of Energy officials also are in talks with other countries aimed at forging a consensus on the best approach to assessing methane emissions.

Robust methane monitoring and certification regimes offer the promise of helping natural gas buyers pinpoint supplies with the lowest carbon footprint — while pushing producers to aggressively combat leaks.

But climate activists argue that lax certification programs are tantamount to greenwashing, potentially giving false assurances to gas buyers and prolonging demand for the fossil fuel without driving significant environmental gains.

Environmentalists have singled out Project Canary for scrutiny over its corporate structure, which blended methane measurement and certification, while other auditors rely on third-party data. Advocacy group Earthworks issued a report earlier this year describing discrepancies between data reported by the firm and what it appeared to detect using optical gas imaging.

--With assistance from Zachary R. Mider.

Author: Jennifer A. Dlouhy