Comparisons of Airborne Measurements and Inventory Estimates of Methane Emissions in the Alberta Upstream Oil and Gas Sector

Johnson, Matthew R.; Tyner, David R.; Conley, Stephen; Schwietzke, Stefan; Zavala-Araiza, Daniel

doi:10.1021/acs.est.7b03525

Cited by 119 publications

(142 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…The average production normalized leakage rate for satellite pads and well sites is 0.21%, while that for super pads is 0.03%. These proportional loss rates are lower than many recent studies of methane emissions in Canada [6,8]. Figure 2(b) shows the absolute methane leakage volumes as a function of production for the same set of sites in figure 2(a).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 67%

“…This also indicates that it is possible for oil and gas operations to have leakage significantly lower than 1% even under a voluntary mitigation plan. Yet, evidence from many recent studies show methane emissions larger than reported or official inventory estimates [5,6]. It suggests that there might be significant differences in methane emissions across operators-a hypothesis with major implications for emissions policy.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recent research on the discrepancy between official inventory estimates and measurements of methane emissions have raised concerns about the need for more effective methane regulations. Both ground-based and aerial-measurements in Alberta showed higher vented and total methane emissions compared to provincial regulatory estimates [5,6]. Similarly, mobile measurements using truck-mounted sensor systems in British Columbia and Alberta have consistently shown that a majority of the emissions are dominated by a small number of high-emitting sites, often identified as 'super-emitters' [5,7,8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 91%

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Repeated leak detection and repair surveys reduce methane emissions over scale of years

Ravikumar

Roda-Stuart

Liu

et al. 2020

Environ. Res. Lett.

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Reducing methane emissions from the oil and gas industry is a critical climate action policy tool in Canada and the US. Optical gas imaging-based leak detection and repair (LDAR) surveys are commonly used to address fugitive methane emissions or leaks. Despite widespread use, there is little empirical measurement of the effectiveness of LDAR programs at reducing long-term leakage, especially over the scale of months to years. In this study, we measure the effectiveness of LDAR surveys by quantifying emissions at 36 unconventional liquids-rich natural gas facilities in Alberta, Canada. A representative subset of these 36 facilities were visited twice by the same detection team: an initial survey and a post-repair re-survey occurring ∼0.5-2 years after the initial survey. Overall, total emissions reduced by 44% after one LDAR survey, combining a reduction in fugitive emissions of 22% and vented emissions by 47%. Furthermore, >90% of the leaks found in the initial survey were not emitting in the re-survey, suggesting high repair effectiveness. However, fugitive emissions reduced by only 22% because of new leaks that occurred between the surveys. This indicates a need for frequent, effective, and low-cost LDAR surveys to target new leaks. The large reduction in vent emissions is associated with potentially stochastic changes to tank-related emissions, which contributed ∼45% of all emissions. Our data suggest a key role for tank-specific abatement strategies as an effective way to reduce oil and gas methane emissions. Finally, mitigation policies will also benefit from more definitive classification of leaks and vents.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 67%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 91%

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Repeated leak detection and repair surveys reduce methane emissions over scale of years

Ravikumar

Roda-Stuart

Liu

et al. 2020

Environ. Res. Lett.

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“…Red Deer), which are driven to conserve natural gas, and heavy oil developments (e.g. Lloydminister), which are associated with large emissions (Johnson et al 2017). However, conventional developments in the region have the lowest calculated emissions intensities across developments in North America, suggesting that differences in total emissions may be driven by a number of factors, such as differences in reservoir composition, regulation, age of the development and infrastructure, operator size and best practice, and field unitization.…”

Section: Infrastructure Typementioning

confidence: 99%

Methane emissions from conventional and unconventional oil and gas production sites in southeastern Saskatchewan, Canada

Baillie

Risk

Atherton

et al. 2019

Environ. Res. Commun.

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Energy development in southeastern Saskatchewan, Canada, is unique because conventional and unconventional oil and gas production is co-located. Mobile surveys are ideal for understanding emissions in this area because the overlap of production makes it difficult for airborne or satellitebased methods to differentiate emissions from each type of infrastructure. In this study, we conducted truck-based mobile surveys in the unconventional Canadian Bakken and conventional Weyburn-Midale fields to enumerate and attribute individual methane plumes, estimate methane (CH 4 ) emission rates, and compare emission vectors. We sampled downwind of 645 conventional and 289 unconventional sites, covering over 4500 km of public roads. We found that 28% of surveyed conventional sites were emitting, compared to 32% of surveyed unconventional sites. Mean emissions intensities in each development were 20 m 3 CH 4 /day per conventional site and 59 m 3 CH 4 /day per unconventional site. Emissions intensities in southeastern Saskatchewan fall on the lower range of other emissions estimates from developments in the US and Canada.

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“…The September 1 st flight was used to calculate a regional mass-balance for the study region (Figure 1). Numerous previous studies have performed regional mass-balance experiments using analogous methodology Peischl et al, 2015;Heimburger et al, 2017;Johnson et al, 2017;Smith et al, 2017). Methane fluxes were calculated by multiplying background-subtracted CH 4 mole fraction (nmol mol -1 ), wind speed (m s -1 ) and dry air density (mol m -3 kg mol -1 ).…”

Section: Aircraft Measurementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Methane emissions in the Netherlands: The Groningen field

Yacovitch

Neininger²,

Herndon

et al. 2018

Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene

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The Groningen natural gas field in the Netherlands – one of Europe’s major gas fields – deploys a “production cluster” infrastructure with extraction, some processing and storage in a single facility. This region is also the site of intensive agriculture and cattle operations. We present results from a multi-scale measurement campaign of methane emissions, including ground and airborne-based estimates. Results are compared with inventory at both the facility and regional level.Investigation of production cluster emissions in the Groningen gas field shows that production volume alone is not a good indicator of whether, and how much, a site is emitting methane. Sites that are nominally shut down may still be emitting, and vice-versa. As a result, the inventory emission factors applied to these sites (i.e. weighted by production) do a poor job of reproducing individual site emissions. Additional facility-level case studies are presented, including a plume at 150 ± 50 kg CH4 hr–1 with an unidentified off-shore emission source, a natural gas storage facility and landfills.Methane emissions in a study region covering 6000 km2 and including the majority of the Groningen field are dominated by biogenic sources (e.g. agriculture, wetlands, cattle). Total methane emissions (8 ± 2 Mg hr–1) are lower than inventory predictions (14 Mg hr–1) but the proportion of fossil fuel sources is higher than indicated by the inventory. Apportionment of methane emissions between thermogenic and biogenic source types used ethane/methane ratios in aircraft flasks and ground-based source characterization. We find that emissions from the oil and gas sector account for 20% of regional methane, with 95% confidence limits of (0%, 51%). The experimental uncertainties bound the inventory apportionment of 1.9%, though the central estimate of 20% exceeds this result by nearly 10 times. This study’s uncertainties demonstrate the need for additional research focusing on emissions apportionment, inventory refinement and offshore platforms.

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Comparisons of Airborne Measurements and Inventory Estimates of Methane Emissions in the Alberta Upstream Oil and Gas Sector

Cited by 119 publications

References 43 publications

Repeated leak detection and repair surveys reduce methane emissions over scale of years

Repeated leak detection and repair surveys reduce methane emissions over scale of years

Methane emissions from conventional and unconventional oil and gas production sites in southeastern Saskatchewan, Canada

Methane emissions in the Netherlands: The Groningen field

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