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.

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.

Evaluating Methods To Estimate Methane Emissions from Oil and Gas Production Facilities Using LES Simulations

2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (19) ◽  
pp. 11206-11214 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pablo E. Saide ◽  
Daniel F. Steinhoff ◽  
Branko Kosovic ◽  
Jeffrey Weil ◽  
Nicole Downey ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Methane Emissions ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Oil And Gas Production ◽  
Evaluating Methods ◽  
Production Facilities

scholarly journals Comment on “The intensification of the water footprint of hydraulic fracturing”

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (8) ◽  
pp. eaav2110
Author(s):  
Daniel Raimi
Keyword(s):  
Hydraulic Fracturing ◽  
Water Consumption ◽  
Energy Production ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Water Footprint ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Permian Basin ◽  
Oil And Gas Production ◽  
Oil And Natural Gas ◽  
Water Intensity

Kondash et al. provide a valuable contribution to our understanding of water consumption and wastewater production from oil and gas production using hydraulic fracturing. Unfortunately, their claim that the water intensity of energy production using hydraulic fracturing has increased in all regions is incorrect. More comprehensive data show that, while the water intensity of production may have increased in regions such as the Permian basin, it has decreased by 74% in the Marcellus and by 19% in the Eagle Ford region. This error likely stems from an improper method for estimating energy production from wells: The authors use the median well to represent regional production, which systematically underestimates aggregate production volumes. Across all regions, aggregate data suggest that the water intensity of oil and natural gas production using hydraulic fracturing has increased by 19%. There also appears to be an error in estimates for water consumption in the Permian basin.

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 A Mobile Sensing Approach for Regional Surveillance of Fugitive Methane Emissions in Oil and Gas Production

2016 ◽  
Vol 50 (5) ◽  
pp. 2487-2497 ◽  
Author(s):  
John. D. Albertson ◽  
Tierney Harvey ◽  
Greg Foderaro ◽  
Pingping Zhu ◽  
Xiaochi Zhou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Methane Emissions ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Mobile Sensing ◽  
Oil And Gas Production ◽  
Regional Surveillance

scholarly journals Concurrent variation in oil and gas methane emissions and oil price during the COVID-19 pandemic

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
David R. Lyon ◽  
Benjamin Hmiel ◽  
Ritesh Gautam ◽  
Mark Omara ◽  
Kate Roberts ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Gas ◽  
Commodity Prices ◽  
Oil Prices ◽  
The United States ◽  
Methane Emissions ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Satellite Observations ◽  
Permian Basin ◽  
Natural Gas Production ◽  
Oil And Natural Gas

Abstract. Methane emissions associated with the production, transport, and use of oil and natural gas increase the climatic impacts of energy use; however, little is known about how emissions vary temporally and with commodity prices. We present airborne and ground-based data, supported by satellite observations, to measure weekly to monthly changes in total methane emissions in the United States’ Permian Basin during a period of volatile oil prices associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. As oil prices declined from ~$ 60 to $ 20 per barrel, emissions changed concurrently from 3.4 % to 1.5 % of gas production; as prices partially recovered, emissions increased back to near initial values. Concurrently, total oil and natural gas production only declined by a maximum of ~10 % from the peak values seen in the months prior to the crash. Activity data indicate that a rapid decline in well development and subsequent effects on associated gas flaring and midstream infrastructure throughput are the likely drivers of temporary emission reductions. Our results, along with past satellite observations, suggest that under more typical price conditions, the Permian Basin is in a state of overcapacity in which rapidly growing natural gas production exceeds midstream capacity and leads to high methane emissions.

scholarly journals A tale of two regions: methane emissions from oil and gas production in offshore/onshore Mexico

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 024019
Author(s):  
Daniel Zavala-Araiza ◽  
Mark Omara ◽  
Ritesh Gautam ◽  
Mackenzie L Smith ◽  
Sudhanshu Pandey ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Methane Emissions ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Oil And Gas Production
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document