Joint DOE/EPA Program to Provide $850 Million to Support Methane Emissions Reduction Projects

Future Funding: Support for Emissions Reduction

The U.S. has been taking significant steps to reduce methane emissions over the past few years with various new regulations and related policies. The latest is a funding opportunity managed through an interagency agreement between the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This initiative consists of competitive awards totaling $850 million for a variety of entities working to reduce methane emissions, speed up commercialization of emissions reduction technologies, and advancing emissions-related data collection and analysis.

Oil and gas facilities are the largest industrial source of methane emissions in the United States, making them a top priority for emissions reduction. While methane is itself a valuable resource that oil and gas companies want to avoid wasting, many facilities experience fugitive methane emissions due to the complex nature of extraction and transmission.

The current federal goal of eliminating methane emissions from the oil and gas industry by 2030 is ambitious, requiring accurate data and a wide array of new solutions to mitigate emissions. Existing mitigation and monitoring technologies are either expensive or in need of commercialization and wider adoption to maximize their impact. Thus, this funding opportunity is aimed at smaller oil and gas companies, non-governmental organizations, environmental groups, state. local, and Tribal governments, and other entities working to measure, monitor, and mitigate methane emissions.

Areas of Interest: Three Goals of the Funding Opportunity

The funding initiative has three main focus areas. The first is reducing methane emissions from oil and gas wells and infrastructure using commercially available solutions for monitoring, measurement, and mitigation. This includes detection and repair of leaks in pipelines and other equipment, installing leak prevention hardware, and plugging of methane emitting low-producing wells.

While the first area of interest relies on existing commercial technology, the second area of interest focuses on the deployment, validation, and commercialization of new technologies that can mitigate emissions from different sources. This includes leaks from natural gas compressors and engines, emissions caused by flaring and non-safety related venting at the well, and emissions related to production.

The funding opportunity’s last area of interest lies in speeding up the deployment of technologies for monitoring methane emissions. This includes widespread installation of methane monitoring hardware as well as improving access to collected data and standards for reporting emissions. The ultimate aim of this area of interest is the development of an accurate, consistent, transparent, and widespread network of methane emissions measurement technologies. Also included in this area of interest is collaboration and community participation in data collection and analysis, including the development of public-facing datasets.

Applied Expertise: What Applicants Need

Organizations interested in applying for funding through this opportunity need to submit materials through the FedConnect portal before 5 p.m. EDT, August 26, 2024. Although many different types of organizations are eligible, there are certain requirements for organizations leading efforts under different areas of interest.

Organizations focusing on reducing emissions from wells and infrastructure should have experience in oil and gas operations as well as emissions measurement and mitigation. Groups applying for funding to support development of monitoring and mitigation solutions will need to submit details on the technology or process they plan to improve along with economic analyses and information on the organization’s technical qualifications and resources. Additionally, applicants must include a Community Benefits Plan that outlines how their projects will support labor engagement, job creation, and meet the needs of the overall community.

Accelerating development of monitoring and mitigation technologies promises a better understanding of oil and gas industry methane emissions. Such improved knowledge would enable better targeting of efforts to mitigate emissions and help the industry continue to cut methane emissions.

A particularly difficult to remediate source of methane emissions known as sustained casing pressure or gas migration, has and continues to be an expensive and time-consuming problem. Traditional remediation via cement squeeze is often unsuccessful and other alternatives such as resins and casing expander tools have not proven reliable either. Operators are having great success (+85%) utilizing biomineralization technology as a solution to this problem and thereby eliminating fugitive emissions. Biomineralization has been used to remediate over 150 wells to date, healing leaks in cement, casing, and the formation with limestone to permanently restore well integrity.