On Monday, oil and gas giant ExxonMobil announced that it would voluntarily take extra steps to reduce methane emissions during a three-year program aimed at some of its US-based facilities. The company declared that it would use more thorough leak detection and repair processes, as well as upgrade facilities with better equipment.

The news comes as various agencies in the federal government have been moving to dismantle methane-monitoring rules put in place by the Obama administration (all while the Republican-controlled Congress has voted to protect some of those same rules ). Exxon is also facing scrutiny from state attorneys general who claim that the company may have misled investors on the nature and urgency of global climate change caused by carbon emissions. Furthermore, the company faced an investor vote (albeit a non-binding one) earlier this year that resulted in 62.3 percent of investors expressing their desire for Exxon to conduct an annual risk review of climate change on the company's business.

So Exxon’s move might be a way to create some goodwill in the face of an increasing number of investors and customers who are concerned about the future of the oil company’s risk profile and its image. This might also safeguard against another sudden regulatory pivot in the US, years or decades down the line.

Exxon’s new methane-reduction program will occur at US production and midstream facilities owned by subsidiary XTO Energy, which owns a stake in more than 55,000 wells in North America. The program will involve phasing out “high-bleed pneumatic devices over three years,” as well as training personnel to detect methane leaks, funding research on satellite and drone-based leak detection, and designing facility improvements, according to ExxonMobile's press release and a Reuters report.

The company continued:

XTO recently completed a pilot project in the Midland Basin that tested new low-emission designs that use compressed air instead of natural gas to operate pneumatic equipment that helps regulate conditions such as level, flow, pressure, and temperature.

The results were, apparently, successful.

Environmental groups have offered guarded support of Exxon’s move. The non-profit group Earthworks pointed to thermal imaging videos it shot in 2014 at XTO sites, showing the normally colorless methane gas leaking from the company's facilities. "If Exxon is truly dedicated to cutting methane pollution, it will tell the Trump administration not to kill the Environmental Protection Agency and Bureau of Land Management methane standards," Earthworks wrote. Similarly, the Environmental Defense Fund called Exxon and XTO’s announcement "sensible and innovative" while calling for XTO to offer “robust... disclosure that enables stakeholders to closely follow and assess the progress and results of its US methane program.”

Ars contacted Exxon for more details on the program. The company has not responded to our request for comment.