Breakthrough Technologies: Keeping an Eye on Oil and Gas Methane Emissions

Published on 17th October, 2023

Methane emissions from the production and delivery of oil and gas are a pervasive issue that endures across the whole supply chain. When oil is produced, flares are often used to vent or waste related or byproduct gas, which releases a significant amount of methane into the atmosphere. According to a recent study conducted by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and Stanford University, high emission rate oil and gas well pads contribute disproportionately to overall methane emissions. A follow-up investigation found that over 50% of the total leakage volume is usually contributed by the greatest 5% of leaks. According to the studies, inventories do not include these "super emissions."

The first significant obstacle is the oil and gas value chain's complexity. The drilling areas of exploration are home to literally hundreds of thousands of pieces of equipment that are used to extract, sort, and move hydrocarbons from the earth. Thousands of companies own these pieces of equipment. For instance, a single marginal field can have three or four companies running machinery simultaneously.

Routine maintenance activities present the next significant challenge. When gas pipelines are being repaired, there are high emissions. Unwanted greenhouse gases are released around the fields as a result of pipeline residual gases being permitted to escape for the purpose of regular maintenance. Considering the previously invisible gases that have accidently leaked during operations, this issue gets more complicated. This is problematic because the focus should be on greenhouse gases that are produced unexpectedly.

Methodology presents the final challenge. Because the atmosphere is so chaotic, it is very difficult to precisely calculate emissions directly from downwind observations of different gases. There is still some ambiguity that cannot be completely eradicated, even with all of the past work done to enhance the current approaches.

Oil and gas corporations are starting to look for ways to lower their excessive emissions as regulatory pressure from the governments of the United States, Canada, and Europe gets stronger. The fact that big corporations are now under a great deal of pressure from their shareholders to reduce their emissions is another important reason. Methane has emerged as a compelling option to reduce heat in the near term because of its significant potential to cause global warming.

In the past, engineering-based or bottom-up estimations have been highly relied upon by businesses and regulatory bodies. Counting the number of operational pieces of equipment in the field and manually estimating the emissions they generate are the two steps in this procedure. Many new technologies have been developed over the years that use an off-site technique, also known as the top-down approach, in which the concentration of greenhouse gas emissions in the air is measured and their emissions are then inferred. The majority of businesses still employ the bottom-up engineering methodology today, but they're looking at what technologies would work best to support it?

Nonetheless, a number of cutting-edge strategies are presently being investigated. Ground-based sensors are being developed, and networks of tiny sensors are being placed all over a well pad in an attempt to find methane. Emissions detection systems also use mobile sensors powered by automobiles. After much research and development, infrared cameras are now progressively required by law. Emissions are monitored using drones equipped with various instruments. Additionally, a number of aircraft-based platforms are flown throughout a whole field in an effort to find methane leaks. Lastly, organizations such as GHGSat monitor methane levels from space.?

Even though it's yet unknown which mix of technology will work best for the various supply chain segments, methane emissions monitoring technologies used in oil and gas operations will continue to advance. It is certain that estimations of emissions based on engineering principles will be combined with various distant methods of measuring methane. Measuring methane emissions from the atmosphere is a very challenging task for businesses, but identifying high emissions events that are probably fixable is not as challenging. Therefore, it is a good idea to combine inventory computations with off-site condition monitoring. Companies can lower their overall emissions to the appropriate levels by minimizing those emissions.

With numerous startups in the sector testing with various companies, the industry will continue to go through a lot of trial and error. It is expected that the industry will see a number of successful tools developed. Modeling and analytics of data collected from investors' perspective as well as from the top-down approach will lead to many companies emerging with significant discoveries.

Author

Joel Gubihama

Co-founder & CEO

Petrodatycs Technologies

petrodatycs.com