scholarly journals Satellite-based survey of extreme methane emissions in the Permian basin

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (27) ◽  
pp. eabf4507
Author(s):  
Itziar Irakulis-Loitxate ◽  
Luis Guanter ◽  
Yin-Nian Liu ◽  
Daniel J. Varon ◽  
Joannes D. Maasakkers ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Methane Emissions ◽  
Point Sources ◽  
Emission Rates ◽  
Industrial Emissions ◽  
Permian Basin ◽  
Satellite Measurements ◽  
New Class ◽  
Methane Budget

Industrial emissions play a major role in the global methane budget. The Permian basin is thought to be responsible for almost half of the methane emissions from all U.S. oil- and gas-producing regions, but little is known about individual contributors, a prerequisite for mitigation. We use a new class of satellite measurements acquired during several days in 2019 and 2020 to perform the first regional-scale and high-resolution survey of methane sources in the Permian. We find an unexpectedly large number of extreme point sources (37 plumes with emission rates >500 kg hour−1), which account for a range between 31 and 53% of the estimated emissions in the sampled area. Our analysis reveals that new facilities are major emitters in the area, often due to inefficient flaring operations (20% of detections). These results put current practices into question and are relevant to guide emission reduction efforts.

Isotopic characterisation of methane emissions from oil and gas operation in Romania

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malika Menoud ◽  
Carina van der Veen ◽  
Hossein Maazallahi ◽  
Julianne Fernandez ◽  
Piotr Korben ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Measurement Data ◽  
Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry ◽  
Ground Level ◽  
Oil And Gas Industry ◽  
Methane Emissions ◽  
Emission Rates

<p>Reducing methane emissions is an important goal of climate change mitigation policies. Recent studies focused on emissions from oil and gas industry, because fixing gas leaks presents a "no-regret" mitigation solution. Yet, uncertainties regarding the fossil fuel emission rates and locations, as well as temporal and spatial variability, are still large for individual source processes, in particular in regions without regular measurements. The Romanian Methane Emissions from Oil and gas (ROMEO) project brought 13 research teams to Romania in order to quantify emissions from this sector. Methane stable isotopes are widely used for source characterisation, but measurement data is lacking from many important geographical locations, such as Eastern Europe. </p><p>A total of 380 air samples were collected in urban areas and around oil and gas extraction sites, from ground level vehicles and from an aircraft. There were measured for δ<sup>13</sup>C-CH<sub>4</sub> and δD-CH<sub>4</sub> using a continuous flow isotope ratio mass spectrometry (CF-IRMS) system. The results were analysed using the Keeling plot approach to derive source signatures at each sampled site. The source signatures obtained for 76 individual oil and gas operation sites range from -70.5 to -22.4 ‰ V-PDB, and from -252 to -144‰ V-SMOW, for δ<sup>13</sup>C and δD respectively. They show a large heterogeneity in δ<sup>13</sup>C, and more regularity in δD values. Variations are affected by the maturity of hydrocarbon deposits, and by different contributions from microbial and thermogenic gas. We will present how the signatures measured at the surface relate to the signatures found for larger plumes sampled from the aircraft. The results of the campaign in Bucharest city reveal a larger contribution from the waste system than fossil fuel fugitive emissions. </p><p>The isotopic characterisation of methane emissions in this region will help to constrain the methane budget on a regional scale, and to improve national inventories.</p>

scholarly journals Comprehensive aerial survey quantifies high methane emissions from the New Mexico Permian Basin

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuanlei Chen ◽  
Evan Sherwin ◽  
Elena Berman ◽  
Brian Jones ◽  
Matthew Gordon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New Mexico ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Methane Emissions ◽  
Aerial Survey ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Emission Rates ◽  
Permian Basin ◽  
Natural Gas Pipelines ◽  
Low Probability ◽  
Airborne Survey

Limiting emissions of climate-warming methane from oil and gas (O&G) is a major opportunity for short-term climate benefits. We deploy a basin-wide airborne survey of the New Mexico Permian Basin, spanning 35,923 km^2, 26,292 active wells, and over 15,000 km of natural gas pipelines using an independently-validated hyperspectral methane point source detection and quantification system. We estimate total O&G methane emissions in this area at 194 (+72/-68, 95% CI) metric tonnes per hour (t/h), or 9.4% (+3.5%/-3.3%) of gross gas production. 50% of observed emissions come from large emission sources with persistence-averaged emission rates over 308 kg/h. This result emphasizes the importance of capturing low-probability, high-consequence events through basin-wide surveys when estimating regional O&G methane emissions.

Using a satellite-aircraft hybrid system based on the same sensor to monitor oil and gas facilities for methane emissions

2021 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 384
Author(s):  
Hanford J. Deglint ◽  
Warren D. Shaw ◽  
Jean-Francois Gauthier
Keyword(s):  
Hybrid System ◽  
Cross Validation ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
The United States ◽  
Methane Emissions ◽  
Great Promise ◽  
Performance Parameters ◽  
Satellite Measurements ◽  
The World ◽  
Imaging Camera

Monitoring methane emissions from oil and gas facilities requires the combination of several technologies to gain a full understanding of the challenge at a manageable cost. The integration of frequent and affordable high resolution satellite measurements to find the larger leaks with less frequent, but more expensive, aerial surveys, forms the basis of a tiered monitoring system showing great promise to optimise leak detection and repair activities. In this extended abstract, examples of methane emissions measurements from controlled releases and at oil and gas facilities acquired with both GHGSat’s second satellite, Iris (launched in September 2020) and the airborne variant of the same sensor are presented. While the combination of different technologies is not uncommon, this system is the first in the world utilising the same sensor at two different altitudes. The performance parameters of each system are highlighted and supported with recent examples. In addition, the advantages of the hybrid system will be discussed, including the opportunity for cross-validation of measurements. Finally, the potential of such a system to be used for regulatory reporting purposes will be discussed and contrasted to the standard of performing optical gas imaging camera campaigns three times a year used in some jurisdictions, notably in Canada and the United States.

scholarly journals High-resolution inversion of methane emissions in the Southeast US using SEAC<sup>4</sup>RS aircraft observations of atmospheric methane: anthropogenic and wetland sources

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (9) ◽  
pp. 6483-6491 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jian-Xiong Sheng ◽  
Daniel J. Jacob ◽  
Alexander J. Turner ◽  
Joannes D. Maasakkers ◽  
Melissa P. Sulprizio ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Source Region ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Methane Emissions ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Anthropogenic Sources ◽  
Oil And Gas Production ◽  
Error Characterization ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Southeast Us

Abstract. We use observations of boundary layer methane from the SEAC4RS aircraft campaign over the Southeast US in August–September 2013 to estimate methane emissions in that region through an inverse analysis with up to 0.25∘×0.3125∘ (25×25 km2) resolution and with full error characterization. The Southeast US is a major source region for methane including large contributions from oil and gas production and wetlands. Our inversion uses state-of-the-art emission inventories as prior estimates, including a gridded version of the anthropogenic EPA Greenhouse Gas Inventory and the mean of the WetCHARTs ensemble for wetlands. Inversion results are independently verified by comparison with surface (NOAA∕ESRL) and column (TCCON) methane observations. Our posterior estimates for the Southeast US are 12.8±0.9 Tg a−1 for anthropogenic sources (no significant change from the gridded EPA inventory) and 9.4±0.8 Tg a−1 for wetlands (27 % decrease from the mean in the WetCHARTs ensemble). The largest source of error in the WetCHARTs wetlands ensemble is the land cover map specification of wetland areal extent. Our results support the accuracy of the EPA anthropogenic inventory on a regional scale but there are significant local discrepancies for oil and gas production fields, suggesting that emission factors are more variable than assumed in the EPA inventory.

scholarly journals Versatile and Targeted Validation of Space-Borne XCO2, XCH4 and XCO Observations by Mobile Ground-Based Direct-Sun Spectrometers

2022 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
André Butz ◽  
Valentin Hanft ◽  
Ralph Kleinschek ◽  
Matthias Max Frey ◽  
Astrid Müller ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Regional Scale ◽  
Point Sources ◽  
Use Cases ◽  
Anthropogenic Emissions ◽  
Mobile System ◽  
Concentration Gradients ◽  
Satellite Measurements ◽  
Continental Scale ◽  
Continental Outflow ◽  
Atmospheric Concentrations

Satellite measurements of the atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and carbon monoxide (CO) require careful validation. In particular for the greenhouse gases CO2 and CH4, concentration gradients are minute challenging the ultimate goal to quantify and monitor anthropogenic emissions and natural surface-atmosphere fluxes. The upcoming European Copernicus Carbon Monitoring mission (CO2M) will focus on anthropogenic CO2 emissions, but it will also be able to measure CH4. There are other missions such as the Sentinel-5 Precursor and the Sentinel-5 series that target CO which helps attribute the CO2 and CH4 variations to specific processes. Here, we review the capabilities and use cases of a mobile ground-based sun-viewing spectrometer of the type EM27/SUN. We showcase the performance of the mobile system for measuring the column-average dry-air mole fractions of CO2 (XCO2), CH4 (XCH4) and CO (XCO) during a recent deployment (Feb./Mar. 2021) in the vicinity of Japan on research vessel Mirai which adds to our previous campaigns on ships and road vehicles. The mobile EM27/SUN has the potential to contribute to the validation of 1) continental-scale background gradients along major ship routes on the open ocean, 2) regional-scale gradients due to continental outflow across the coast line, 3) urban or other localized emissions as mobile part of a regional network and 4) emissions from point sources. Thus, operationalizing the mobile EM27/SUN along these use cases can be a valuable asset to the validation activities for CO2M, in particular, and for various upcoming satellite missions in general.

Evaluation of oil and gas methane emissions in Romania using mobile measurements

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilona Velzeboer ◽  
Antonio Delre ◽  
Arjan Hensen ◽  
Pim van den Bulk ◽  
Charlotte Scheutz
Keyword(s):  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Methane Emissions ◽  
Emission Rates ◽  
Methodological Issues ◽  
Site Specific ◽  
Heavy Tailed ◽  
Mobile Measurements ◽  
Mobile Measurement ◽  
Specific Evaluation

&lt;p&gt;Romania has been a pioneer country in oil and gas (O&amp;G) exploration in Europe and is the largest producer of O&amp;G in Central and Eastern Europe. However, many installations are old and production levels are decreasing. The ROMEO measurement campaign was carried out in Romania to evaluate methane emissions form onshore O&amp;G operations in Romania in 2019 (ROMEO, 2019). In this program, Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and TNO used mobile-van-based measurements in combination with tracer release to quantify emissions. A total set of 200 oil and gas wells, and facilities were evaluated and emissions were quantified. Methane emission rates ranged largely between about 0.02 and 38 g s&lt;sup&gt;-1&lt;/sup&gt;, following a &amp;#8220;heavy-tailed&amp;#8221; lognormal distribution. A small number of sites (5%) were responsible for 55% of the total emission. Decreasing emissions only from the few high-emitters would effectively decrease methane emissions from the investigated area. This shows the value of site-specific evaluation from the ground. In this presentation, the mobile measurement equipped vans will be shown and methodological issues will be addressed. Also the results in terms of the emission distribution will be presented. The outcome of this study can help the Romanian O&amp;G companies to set priorities in leak repair, which can then lead to a quick win in emission reduction.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;References&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;ROMEO, 2019. ROMEO - ROmanian Methane Emissions from Oil &amp; gas. URL http://romeo-memo2.wikidot.com/ (last accessed 13.01.21).&lt;/p&gt;

Transient methane emissions in the Permian Basin

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Cusworth ◽  
Riley Duren ◽  
Andrew Thorpe ◽  
Philip Dennison ◽  
Nicole Downey ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Imaging Spectroscopy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Point Sources ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Permian Basin ◽  
Production Distribution ◽  
Processing Plants ◽  
Heavy Tailed ◽  
Total Point

&lt;p&gt;The Permian Basin is the largest and fastest growing oil and gas (O&amp;G) producing region in the United States. Methane (CH4), a powerful greenhouse gas, is emitted from both routine and abnormal or avoidable operating conditions in the Permian Basin, including O&amp;G production, distribution, and processing. The time scales over which these emissions persist is uncertain, and this uncertainty can lead to large discrepancies in bottom-up emission accounting. Here, we conducted an extensive airborne campaign across the majority (55,000 km&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt;) of the Permian Basin with imaging spectrometers to quantify individual CH4 point sources at the facility scale. We revisited each source multiple times and found that CH4 sources exhibited 26% persistence on average. Persistence-averaged CH4 emissions follow a heavy-tailed distribution, with 20% of facilities constituting 60% of the total point source budget. We quantified the total CH4 flux in the region (point + area sources) through an inverse analysis with satellite observations, and find that point sources make up 50% of the regional CH4 budget. Sector attribution of plumes shows that 50% of detected emissions result from O&amp;G production, 38% from gathering, and 12% from processing plants. Imaging spectroscopy allows for identification of flares, and we find that 12% of CH4 plume emissions were associated with either active or inactive flares, and often emitting above 1000 kg CH4 h&lt;sup&gt;-1&lt;/sup&gt;, even under active flaring. These results show that regular plume-scale monitoring in heterogeneous O&amp;G basins is necessary to understand the high intermittency of operations and resulting emissions.&lt;/p&gt;

Environmental Defense Fund Permian Basin Campaign: a science and advocacy-based approach to quantify and mitigate methane emissions from the oil and gas industry

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Lyon ◽  
Mark Omara ◽  
Ritesh Gautam ◽  
Kate Roberts ◽  
Beth Trask ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Atmospheric Transport ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Oil And Gas Industry ◽  
Methane Emissions ◽  
Test Method ◽  
State University ◽  
Permian Basin ◽  
Gas Industry ◽  
Small Clusters

&lt;p&gt;The Permian Basin in west Texas and southeast New Mexico (United States) is one of the most productive oil and gas (O&amp;G) basins in the world, but little methane emissions data have been collected from the region.&amp;#160; Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) is leading a year-long science and advocacy campaign to measure O&amp;G methane emissions in the Permian Basin and quickly communicate the data to stakeholders including the public and O&amp;G operators to facilitate emission reductions. EDF and our scientific partners are using three primary approaches to repeatedly quantify emissions at different spatial scales during the campaign. Pennsylvania State University is estimating regional methane emissions on a quarterly basis with atmospheric transport modeling of data collected from a network of five tower-based instruments. University of Wyoming is deploying a mobile laboratory on public roads to measure site-level emissions of methane and volatile organic compounds with EPA Other Test Method 33A and the transect approach.&amp;#160; Scientific Aviation is performing aerial mass balance flights to quantify emissions from small clusters of sites, gridded areas, and larger regions.&amp;#160; Additionally, EDF is collaborating with several groups using remote sensing approaches to quantify methane emissions including TROPOMI, AVIRIS-NG, GAO, and MethaneAIR. &amp;#160;Emissions data including site identities will be published on a custom public website as quickly as possible to educate stakeholders about the magnitude of emissions and facilitate the mitigation of detected emission sources. Following the campaign, data will be analyzed to understand patterns and trends in emissions.&amp;#160; Furthermore, we will discuss the potential for implementing similar monitoring approaches in other O&amp;G basins to provide scientifically-rigorous, actionable data that supports effective mitigation of methane emissions.&lt;/p&gt;

scholarly journals Satellite observations of atmospheric methane and their value for quantifying methane emissions

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (22) ◽  
pp. 14371-14396 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel J. Jacob ◽  
Alexander J. Turner ◽  
Joannes D. Maasakkers ◽  
Jianxiong Sheng ◽  
Kang Sun ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Regional Scale ◽  
Methane Emissions ◽  
Point Sources ◽  
Satellite Observations ◽  
Anthropogenic Sources ◽  
Emission Inventories ◽  
Atmospheric Methane ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Spatial Coverage ◽  
Wide Range

Abstract. Methane is a greenhouse gas emitted by a range of natural and anthropogenic sources. Atmospheric methane has been measured continuously from space since 2003, and new instruments are planned for launch in the near future that will greatly expand the capabilities of space-based observations. We review the value of current, future, and proposed satellite observations to better quantify and understand methane emissions through inverse analyses, from the global scale down to the scale of point sources and in combination with suborbital (surface and aircraft) data. Current global observations from Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite (GOSAT) are of high quality but have sparse spatial coverage. They can quantify methane emissions on a regional scale (100–1000 km) through multiyear averaging. The Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI), to be launched in 2017, is expected to quantify daily emissions on the regional scale and will also effectively detect large point sources. A different observing strategy by GHGSat (launched in June 2016) is to target limited viewing domains with very fine pixel resolution in order to detect a wide range of methane point sources. Geostationary observation of methane, still in the proposal stage, will have the unique capability of mapping source regions with high resolution, detecting transient "super-emitter" point sources and resolving diurnal variation of emissions from sources such as wetlands and manure. Exploiting these rapidly expanding satellite measurement capabilities to quantify methane emissions requires a parallel effort to construct high-quality spatially and sectorally resolved emission inventories. Partnership between top-down inverse analyses of atmospheric data and bottom-up construction of emission inventories is crucial to better understanding methane emission processes and subsequently informing climate policy.

scholarly journals A global gridded (0.1° × 0.1°) inventory of methane emissions from oil, gas, and coal exploitation based on national reports to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 563-575 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tia R. Scarpelli ◽  
Daniel J. Jacob ◽  
Joannes D. Maasakkers ◽  
Melissa P. Sulprizio ◽  
Jian-Xiong Sheng ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Methane Emissions ◽  
Point Sources ◽  
Atmospheric Methane ◽  
United Nations Framework Convention ◽  
Oil Refineries ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Oil Gas

Abstract. Individual countries report national emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, in accordance with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). We present a global inventory of methane emissions from oil, gas, and coal exploitation that spatially allocates the national emissions reported to the UNFCCC (Scarpelli et al., 2019). Our inventory is at 0.1∘×0.1∘ resolution and resolves the subsectors of oil and gas exploitation, from upstream to downstream, and the different emission processes (leakage, venting, flaring). Global emissions for 2016 are 41.5 Tg a−1 for oil, 24.4 Tg a−1 for gas, and 31.3 Tg a−1 for coal. An array of databases is used to spatially allocate national emissions to infrastructure, including wells, pipelines, oil refineries, gas processing plants, gas compressor stations, gas storage facilities, and coal mines. Gridded error estimates are provided in normal and lognormal forms based on emission factor uncertainties from the IPCC. Our inventory shows large differences with the EDGAR v4.3.2 global gridded inventory both at the national scale and in finer-scale spatial allocation. It shows good agreement with the gridded version of the United Kingdom's National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory (NAEI). There are significant errors on the 0.1∘×0.1∘ grid associated with the location and magnitude of large point sources, but these are smoothed out when averaging the inventory over a coarser grid. Use of our inventory as prior estimate in inverse analyses of atmospheric methane observations allows investigation of individual subsector contributions and can serve policy needs by evaluating the national emissions totals reported to the UNFCCC. Gridded data sets can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/HH4EUM (Scarpelli et al., 2019).

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document