HOUSTON — Oil and gas giant Shell urged the Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday to keep Obama-era regulations targeting methane leaks from oil and gas drillers and fracking operations, instead of weakening them as planned.

Gretchen Watkins, the U.S. president of Shell, said the company is breaking from a decadeslong tradition of not criticizing U.S. government policies by calling on EPA to regulate methane, a potent greenhouse gas that is the main component of natural gas.