scholarly journals Equipment leak detection and quantification at 67 oil and gas sites in the Western United States

Elem Sci Anth ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam P. Pacsi ◽  
Tom Ferrara ◽  
Kailin Schwan ◽  
Paul Tupper ◽  
Miriam Lev-On ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Emission Rate ◽  
Greenhouse Gas Emission ◽  
Estimation Method ◽  
Reference Method ◽  
Leak Detection ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Western United States ◽  
Rate Distribution

Emissions from equipment leaks from process components, such as valves and flanges, were measured at 67 sites in the oil and natural gas production and gathering and boosting segments in four different onshore production basins in the western United States. Component counts were obtained from 65 of the 67 sites where nearly 84,000 monitored components resulted in a leak detection rate of 0.39% when detection results using both optical gas imaging (OGI) and a handheld flame ionization detector (FID) were combined. OGI techniques identified fewer leaks but greater total emissions than surveys using an FID operated in accordance with United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Reference Method 21. Many of the leaks that were identified only with an FID were on the lower end of the emission rate distribution in this study. Conversely, OGI identified several components on the higher end of the study emission rate distribution that were not identified with FID-based methods. The most common EPA estimation method for greenhouse gas emission reporting for equipment leaks, which is based on major site equipment counts and population-average component emission factors, would have overestimated equipment leak emissions by 22% to 36% for the sites surveyed in this study as compared to direct measurements of leaking components because of a lower frequency of leaking components in this work than during the field surveys conducted more than 20 years ago to develop the current EPA factors. Results from this study further support emerging evidence that methane detection technologies for oil and gas applications should be evaluated on a different framework than a simple comparison of the counts of leaks detected.

scholarly journals Revised Estimation Method for Emissions from Automated Plunger Lift Liquid Unloadings

Environments ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 25
Author(s):  
Adam Pacsi ◽  
David W. Sullivan ◽  
David T. Allen
Keyword(s):  
Direct Measurement ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Measurement Data ◽  
Estimation Method ◽  
The United States ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Small Subset ◽  
Emission Estimate ◽  
National Measurement ◽  
The Individual

A variety of liquid unloading techniques are used to clear accumulated liquids from the wellbore to increase production rates for oil and gas wells. Data from national measurement studies indicate that a small subset of wells with plunger lift assist, that vent with high frequency and short event duration, contribute a significant fraction of methane emissions from liquid unloading activities in the United States. Compared to direct measurement of emissions at 24 wells in a field campaign, the most commonly used engineering emission estimate for this source category, which is based on the volume of gas in the wellbore, does not accurately predict emissions at the individual well (R2 = 0.06). An alternative emission estimate is proposed that relies on the duration of the venting activity and the gas production rate of the well, which has promising statistical performance characteristics when compared to direct measurement data. This work recommends well parameters that should be collected from future field measurement campaigns that are focused on this emission source.

scholarly journals Daily Satellite Observations of Methane from Oil and Gas Production Regions in the United States

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joost A. de Gouw ◽  
J. Pepijn Veefkind ◽  
Esther Roosenbrand ◽  
Barbara Dix ◽  
John C. Lin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
The United States ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Satellite Observations ◽  
Oil And Gas Production

There is no easy solution to Cuba’s fuel challenges

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
The United States ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Oil Price ◽  
Oil And Gas Production ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Generating Capacity ◽  
Major Producer

Subject Cuba's energy troubles. Significance With a previously generous Venezuela facing economic crisis and the United States tightening sanctions, Cuba’s ability to augment its limited domestic oil and gas production is severely constrained. It lacks the export earnings to invest in new technologies and power generating capacity that could ease its fuel supply problems. Russia and China have spoken of offering assistance, but neither is inclined to provide handouts in the absence of commercial returns. Impacts Cuba has tried to trade more with Algeria and Angola but remains vulnerable to international oil price shifts. As a major producer of both sugar and biofuels, Brazil could provide a model for Cuba’s biofuel plans. Cubans are resilient and accustomed to hardship; the country’s looming economic troubles are unlikely to trigger serious unrest.

Geochemical Partitioning of Metals in Spent Drilling Fluid Solids

1998 ◽  
Vol 120 (3) ◽  
pp. 208-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. E. Deuel ◽  
G. H. Holliday
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Organic Matter ◽  
Environmental Protection Agency ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Chemical Reactivity ◽  
Drilling Fluid ◽  
The United States ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Residual Fraction ◽  
Mn Oxide

Metals in oil and gas fluids have been of concern to the environmental and industrial communities since 1976. As a result, metals in 31 spent drilling fluids representative of the major oil and gas production provinces in the Continental United States, were fractionated into exchangeable, bound to carbonates, bound to Fe-Mn oxides, bound to organic matter, and residual forms using a sequential extraction (summation of fractions) technique. Bioavailability and mobility of metals in solid matrices follow in sequence of the operational defined fractions with chemical reactivity decreasing in the order of exchangeable > bound to carbonate > bound to Fe-Mn oxide > bound to organic matter > residual fractions. Metals evaluated in this study include arsenic, barium, cadmium, chromium, lead, and zinc. The summation of fractions was compared to independent total metals analysis using the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) SW-846 Method 3050 digest procedure to evaluate metal recoveries. No difference was observed in the summation of fractions and EPA Method 3050 total metal values for arsenic, barium, and cadmium. EPA Method 3050 digest was about 28 percent lower in chromium, and about 19 percent lower in lead and 16 percent lower in zinc than the total by summation of fractions. Almost all of the barium (95.6 percent) was recovered in the residual fraction. Arsenic was recovered primarily in the residual fraction (74.3 percent) and the Fe-Mn oxide fraction (16.1 percent). The highest quantity of cadmium was recovered in the residual fraction (43.3 percent), followed by the bound to organic (27.9 percent), and bound to Fe-Mn oxide (21.1 percent) fractions. Chromium was observed primarily in the residual (40.4 percent) and bound to Fe-Mn oxide (34 percent) fractions. Lead was distributed primarily in the bound to Fe-Mn oxide (49.3 percent), and residual (27 percent) fractions. Zinc was almost equally distributed in the bound to organic (36.2 percent), and bound to Fe-Mn oxide (33.1 percent) fractions. Cadmium (3.9 percent) and arsenic (2.7 percent) were the only metals with an exchangeable fraction >1 percent of the total. Low total and/or low exchangeable metal concentrations ultimately control the bioavailability and mobility of metals in spent drilling solids and limit the potential for an adverse impact on the environment.

What fuels oil company risk?

2009 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 183
Author(s):  
Les Coleman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Research Question ◽  
The United States ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Risk Propensity ◽  
Oil And Gas Production ◽  
Integrated Theory ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Oil Company

This article has a simple research question: what determines the risks of oil producing companies listed in Australia and the United States, and are there any differences between their risk attitudes? A literature review is used to develop an integrated theory of company risk that is validated using a hand-collected database covering active oil and gas production companies in Australia and the United States. Risk in both countries proved to be a function of company risk propensity and risk management, which each had a small number of deep-seated drivers spread across company structure, governance and performance. These common risk-related features between companies in geographically remote countries point to the complexity of achieving portfolio diversification.

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