Satellite-based survey of extreme methane emissions in the Permian basin

Abstract

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.

Enhanced monitoring of atmospheric methane from space over the Permian basin with hierarchical Bayesian inference

“…The fact that we do not see a positive correlation between β t and lit flare stack count could suggest that there are sources of methane in or around the study region that are not contributing nitrogen dioxide, such as well head completions, leaks, compressor stations or unlit flare stacks. Some flare stacks may be operating in an abnormal manner [38][39][40], and recent work suggests that super-emitting individual flares may be accountable for the majority of methane emissions in the Permian Basin [13]. We also find no observed seasonality in the time series of β t .…”

“…In 2016 the private enterprise GHGSat-D instrument was launched, with a greatly improved pixel resolution over GOSAT of 50x50 m 2 for targeted viewing of selected methane sources [6]. Next generation instruments such as the Advanced Hyperspectral Imager (AHSI) launched on board China's GaoFen5 satellite in 2018 provide methane retrievals with a pixel resolution down to 30 metres [12], but such missions are sporadically operated for targeted areas and do not provide the same level of spatial coverage as GOSAT [13]. Leading the field in regional observation is the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) on board the ESA's Sentinal-5 Precursor satellite.…”

Joint Use of in-Scene Background Radiance Estimation and Optimal Estimation Methods for Quantifying Methane Emissions Using PRISMA Hyperspectral Satellite Data: Application to the Korpezhe Industrial Site

“…This is the case for the definition of the plume contour in the detection part and then the selection of an area of interest to translate the concentration map into a flow rate. Selecting a plume area is a common problem in the literature [38,78]. Monitoring methane emissions using satellite images has the advantage of a short revisit time and global coverage of the Earth.…”

“…The new imaging satellite, PRISMA (PRecursore IperSpettralle della Missione Applicativa) [35], launched in 2019, has a spatial resolution of 30 m and hyperspectral images are available. Recent work has demonstrated the feasibility of using this satellite to quantify methane plumes [36][37][38].…”

A Methodology for CO2 Retrieval Applied to Hyperspectral PRISMA Data

“…Recent works used PRISMA spectra, in the SWIR spectral range, for achieving enhancements of XCO 2 and XCH 4 around large point sources such as power plants and gas well blowouts [32][33][34]. In these studies, the IMAP-DOAS method [35] and the Matched Filter technique [36] were employed for the retrievals.…”