Methane leaks are far worse than estimates, at least in New Mexico, but there's hope

A new study shows that methane is 30 times more potent at trapping heat than carbon dioxide.

One of the most expansive and highest-produced oil and gas regions in the world, the Permian Basin in New Mexico, was studied by researchers using airborne sensors to detect methane leaks from individual oil and gas production facilities. More than 9 percent of methane produced in the region is being leaked into the skies, which is several-fold higher than the EPA's estimates. On a national basis, the EPA puts the number of leaks at 1.4 percent.

We surveyed almost every oil and gas asset in the New Mexico Permian for an entire year to measure and link emissions to specific facilities.

Hopes are rising.

Energy industry engineers and environmental watchers fear that leaks from mines, wells, refinery, storage facilities and pipelines are vastly under reported. They lacked the equipment to prove it. They confirm suspicions to a degree after they have it.

The hyperspectral cameras mounted to the airplanes were used in the New Mexico Permian Basin. The human eye cannot detect sunlight reflected off various chemicals in the air. Methane has an optical fingerprint. The technology was verified in a peer-reviewed study and invested two years responding to stakeholder questions and concerns to prove its validity.

Methane is easy to spot with these sensors. The paper's other co-lead author, a PhD student in energy resources engineering, said that they were very confident in their results. Chen wrote the computer code to estimate production and calculate leak quantities.

There is greater insight.

The researchers identified and quantified the sources of medium and large leaks over the course of 115 flight days. Nine of every 10 active sites in the region were covered by the campaign. The aerial survey gave more insight into the problem than the ground surveys have done so far.

The study is only a single region and cannot be projected nationally or beyond at this time. The larger and more hopeful message in the study is the monitoring technology itself. Inexpensive and precise aerial rapid screening of methane leaks could be a game-changer for environmental monitoring.

The technology has major implications for efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions according to the senior author of the study.

There are major implications.

Methane comes from a few sources. Less than 4% of surveyed sites produced half of the methane emissions observed. The super-emitters are here.

Regular flights over oil and gas producing regions would be more accurate and cost-effective than current approaches. According to industry estimates, current ground monitoring of methane leaks costs $600 per facility, and the proposed EPA regulations would require this as many as four times a year. More than 30,000 oil and gas assets and 15,000 kilometers of natural gas lines in the New Mexico Permian Basin could cost $70 million annually.

The per-site estimates for aircraft-borne sensor are cheaper than that. The team has begun discussions with regulators and the industry to encourage wider adoption of this type of sensor. The EPA proposal is based on a two-day methane detection workshop at which the authors were selected to present this work, which would allow aerial screening six times a year with annual ground inspections, allowing producers to find and fix their big leaks faster at a lower total cost.

They struck an optimistic note. Shutting down leaks is an easy fix once they are identified. They hope these new monitoring techniques can be used to spot the super-emitters quickly, stop losing product and cut off damaging methane leaks as soon as possible.

Adam is a senior fellow in the Precourt Institute for Energy.

Elena Berman, Brian Jones, Matthew Gordon, and Eric Kort are all from the company that developed the technology.

More information: Yuanlei Chen et al, Quantifying Regional Methane Emissions in the New Mexico Permian Basin with a Comprehensive Aerial Survey Environmental Science & Technology (2022). DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.1c06458 Journal information: Environmental Science & Technology Citation: Methane leaks are far worse than estimates, at least in New Mexico, but there's hope (2022, March 24) retrieved 24 March 2022 from https://phys.org/news/2022-03-methane-leaks-worse-mexico.html This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.