Fixing inefficient oil field flaring could drastically reduce methane emissions


Orjan F. Ellingvag/Corbis via Getty Images

Jon Fingas
·Reporter
Fri, September 30, 2022 

Oil and gas companies regularly use flaring (that is, burning unwanted methane) to limit the amount of natural gas escaping into the atmosphere, but the practice might not be as kind to the planet as previously thought. Scientists at the University of Michigan, Stanford and elsewhere have discovered that flaring is much less effective than the industry assumes, and puts out five times more methane (a strong greenhouse gas) than predicted.

Companies and governments act on the belief flares are always lit and burn off 98 percent of methane. However, aerial surveys of three US basins (where 80 percent of American flaring takes place) have revealed that the flares aren't lit up to 5 percent of the time, and operate inefficiently when they're active. In practice, the flaring efficiency is just 91 percent. That may not sound like a big dip, but it signifies that there's a large volume of unaccounted-for methane contributing to climate change.



There is an upside to the findings. Flaring's problems are "quite addressable" with better management, lead researcher Genevieve Plant said, and a solution would offer an equivalent emissions reduction to removing 3 million cars. To put it another way, this could be one of the easiest ways to keep methane in check and limit global warming. The challenge is to have companies and governments work in harmony — that's not guaranteed, even if the fix is relatively straightforward.

Methane blast in Baltic Sea highlights global problem

A flare burns at Venture Global LNG in Cameron, La., on Friday, April 21, 2022. Climate scientists have found that methane emissions from the oil and gas industry are far worse than what companies are reporting, despite claims by some major firms that they’ve reduced their emissions. (AP Photo/Martha Irvine, File)
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CATHY BUSSEWITZ
Fri, September 30, 2022 at 1:02 AM·4 min read


NEW YORK (AP) — Scientists have been measuring the scale of the massive methane leak from damaged pipelines in the Baltic Sea, with the latest figures equating the levels of gas escaping to the annual emissions of some whole countries. It is believed to be the single biggest recorded gas leak over a short period of time.

But as serious as the methane escaping from ruptured pipelines may be, there are alarming incidents of massive methane releases around the world frequently.

Climate scientists have found that methane emissions from the oil and gas industry are far worse than what companies are reporting, despite claims by some major firms that they’ve reduced their emissions. That matters because natural gas, a fossil fuel widely used to heat homes and provide electricity, is made up of methane, a potent climate warming gas. It escapes into the atmosphere from well sites and across the natural gas distribution network, from pipelines and compressor stations, to the export terminals that liquefy gas to ship it overseas.

Scientists measuring methane from satellites in space have found that methane emissions from oil and gas operations are usually at least twice what companies reported, said Thomas Lauvaux, a scientist at University of Reims in France. In the Permian Basin, the largest oil and gas field in the United States, methane emissions were two to three times higher than what companies reported, he said.

“Everybody claims they have reduced their emissions, but it’s not true,” Lauvaux said.

Governments around the world, especially in the U.S., are also notorious for underestimating how much methane escapes into the air, said Cornell University ecology and biology professor Robert Howarth, who studies natural gas emissions.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency uses voluntary self-reporting from industry instead of independent verification, which is what’s needed, Howarth said.

Globally, Turkmenistan is among the worst offenders for releasing methane into the atmosphere, while Saudi Arabia is among the best at capturing it based on satellite observations, Lauvaux said. The U.S. falls somewhere in the middle with some companies capturing methane pretty well and others performing terribly.

Lauvaux and other scientists have observed more than 1,500 major methane leaks globally, and potentially tens of thousands of smaller leaks, using satellites, he said.

Most of the oil and gas industry’s methane emissions come from pipelines and compressor stations, according to Kayrros, a company which analyzes satellite data.

Many of those so-called leaks are not accidental; they occur when companies perform routine maintenance. For example when a pipeline needs repair, operators need to bleed gas out so they can weld without an explosion. But instead of capturing the gas most companies just open the pipeline and release the methane into the air, a practice which is legal in the U.S. and elsewhere. Some companies do capture methane instead of just releasing it, but more could adopt the practice, scientists said.

One way the oil and gas industry tries to reduce methane emissions is by flaring, or burning off, what they consider excess gas. Companies might employ a flare when they’re drilling for oil, and gas comes up along with the oil. If they don't have the pipeline infrastructure to transport it to customers, or if they’ve decided that gas, which is generally cheaper than oil, isn’t worth the effort, they may send the gas up a flare stack to burn it off.

In Turkmenistan, scientists found flares malfunctioning for as long as three years. “This gas is just pouring into the atmosphere,” Lauvaux said.

A study released Thursday by scientists at the University of Michigan found that flaring releases five times more methane in the U.S. than previously thought. Flares, they found, are often unlit or not working, allowing gas to escape directly into the atmosphere.

Reducing flaring or making sure flares are working properly would go a long way, said Genevieve Plant, a lead author of the study and climate scientist at University of Michigan.

“If we take action soon, it will have a large climate impact,” Plant said.

Fossil fuels are by no means the only source of methane. The gas can come from decaying garbage in landfills and livestock agriculture, even plants breaking down in reservoir dams. Fossil methane may make up some 30% of the total.

David Archer is a professor in the geophysical sciences department at University of Chicago and focuses on the global carbon cycle. He thinks much of the methane that has escaped from the Baltic Sea pipelines dissolved in the water.

The leak is dramatic, but it doesn’t compare to the daily impact of methane emitters such as agricultural operations, Archer said.

The amounts "from oil wells and cattle are much larger, just harder to visualize. If the explosion in the Baltic looks large, it’s because it’s concentrated,” he said.

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AP reporters Patrick Whittle contributed from Portland, Maine, Seth Borenstein from Washington, DC., and Christina Larson from Washington, D.C.

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Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

How methane leaks speed up global warming

Thu, September 29, 2022 at 4:29 PM


STORY: Methane leaks are speeding up global warming.

They've become a top threat to the global climate in recent years -

with the leaks at two Russian gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea as the latest example.

Research has shown that reducing methane emissions is vital to averting the worst impacts of climate change -

and after decades of focusing on gas carbon dioxide -

policymakers are starting to recognize its threat.

“So there's urgent need to do something and there is a lot we can do...”

But what is methane?

It's the main component of natural gas

Some methane comes from natural sources like swamps but most comes from human activity

Source: Climate and Clean Air Coalition data

Two-thirds of those human-caused emissions come from livestock farming and fossil fuels

Much of the rest are from decomposing waste and rice cultivation.

Scientists say methane is much more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas in the short term

Methane breaks down in the atmosphere in a fraction of the time compared to CO2 - but it has a front-loaded impact

When you compare the effects of both over a century -

Research shows methane is 28 times worse

But over two decades - that figure jumps to 80

In 2021 over 100 nations signed a pledge to slash emissions from 2020 levels

"So, together, we're committed to collectively reduce our methane by thirty percent by 2030 and I think we could probably go beyond that."

World governments, including the United States, are introducing requirements that the oil and gas industry detect and repair leaks after studies showed leaks in the industry were a huge problem.

And the world is close to crossing a so-called 'tipping point' -

where climate feedback loops kick in to make global warming self-perpetuating.

One study says that events that could touch off those loops are imminent -

like the collapse of the Greenland Ice sheet - or the melting of Arctic permafrost.