US energy industry methane emissions are triple what government thinks, study finds

SETH BORENSTEIN
Wed, March 13, 2024 

FILE - A flare burns at a well pad Aug. 26, 2021, near Watford City, N.D. American oil and natural gas wells, pipelines and compressors are spewing three times the amount of the potent heat-trapping gas methane as the government thinks, a new comprehensive study calculates. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown, File)


American oil and natural gas wells, pipelines and compressors are spewing three times the amount of the potent heat-trapping gas methane as the government thinks, causing $9.3 billion in yearly climate damage, a new comprehensive study calculates.

But because more than half of these methane emissions are coming from a tiny number of oil and gas sites, 1% or less, this means the problem is both worse than the government thought but also fairly fixable, said the lead author of a study in Wednesday's journal Nature.

The same issue is happening globally. Large methane emissions events around the world detected by satellites grew 50% in 2023 compared to 2022 with more than 5 million metric tons spotted in major fossil fuel leaks, the International Energy Agency reported Wednesday in their Global Methane Tracker 2024. World methane emissions rose slightly in 2023 to 120 million metric tons, the report said.


“This is really an opportunity to cut emissions quite rapidly with targeted efforts at these highest emitting sites,” said lead author Evan Sherwin, an energy and policy analyst at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Lab who wrote the study while at Stanford University. “If we can get this roughly 1% of sites under control, then we're halfway there because that's about half of the emissions in most cases.”

Sherwin said the fugitive emissions come throughout the oil and gas production and delivery system, starting with gas flaring. That's when firms release natural gas to the air or burn it instead of capturing the gas that comes out of energy extraction. There's also substantial leaks throughout the rest of the system, including tanks, compressors and pipelines, he said.

“It's actually straightforward to fix,” Sherwin said.

In general about 3% of the U.S. gas produced goes wasted into the air, compared to the Environmental Protection Agency figures of 1%, the study found. Sherwin said that's a substantial amount, about 6.2 million tons per hour in leaks measured over the daytime. It could be lower at night, but they don't have those measurements.

The study gets that figure using one million anonymized measurements from airplanes that flew over 52% of American oil wells and 29% of gas production and delivery system sites over a decade. Sherwin said the 3% leak figure is the average for the six regions they looked at and they did not calculate a national average.

Methane over a two-decade period traps about 80 times more heat than carbon dioxide, but only lasts in the atmosphere for about a decade instead of hundreds of years like carbon dioxide, according to the EPA.

About 30% of the world's warming since pre-industrial times comes from methane emissions, said IEA energy supply unit head Christophe McGlade. The United States is the No. 1 oil and gas production methane emitter, with China polluting even more methane from coal, he said.

Last December, the Biden administration issued a new rule forcing the U.S. oil and natural gas industry to cut its methane emissions. At the same time at the United Nations climate negotiations in Dubai, 50 oil companies around the world pledged to reach near zero methane emissions and end routine flaring in operations by 2030. That Dubai agreement would trim about one-tenth of a degree Celsius, nearly two-tenths of a degree Fahrenheit, from future warming, a prominent climate scientist told The Associated Press.

Monitoring methane from above, instead of at the sites or relying on company estimates, is a growing trend. Earlier this month the market-based Environmental Defense Fund and others launched MethaneSAT into orbit. For energy companies, the lost methane is valuable with Sherwin's study estimate it is worth about $1 billion a year.

About 40% of the global methane emissions from oil, gas and coal could have been avoided at no extra cost, which is “a massive missed opportunity,” IEA's McGlade said. The IEA report said if countries do what they promised in Dubai they could cut half of the global methane pollution by 2030, but actions put in place so far only would trim 20% instead, “a very large gap between emissions and actions,” McGlade said.

“It is critical to reduce methane emissions if the world is to meet climate targets,” said Cornell University methane researcher Robert Horwath, who wasn't part of Sherwin's study.

“Their analysis makes sense and is the most comprehensive study by far out there on the topic,” said Howarth, who is updating figures in a forthcoming study to incorporate the new data.

The overflight data shows the biggest leaks are in the Permian basin of Texas and New Mexico.

“It's a region of rapid growth, primarily driven by oil production,” Sherwin said. “So when the drilling happens, both oil and gas comes out, but the main thing that the companies want to sell in most cases was the oil. And there wasn't enough pipeline capacity to take the gas away” so it spewed into the air instead.

Contrast that with tiny leak rates found in drilling in the Denver region and the Pennsylvania area. Denver leaks are so low because of local strictly enforced regulations and Pennsylvania is more gas-oriented, Sherwin said.

This shows a real problem with what National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association methane-monitoring scientist Gabrielle Petron calls “super-emitters."

“Reliably detecting and fixing super-emitters is a low hanging fruit to reduce real life greenhouse gas emissions,” Petron, who wasn't part of Sherwin's study, said. “This is very important because these super-emitter emissions are ignored by most ‘official’ accounting.”

Stanford University climate scientist Rob Jackson, who also wasn't part of the study, said, “a few facilities are poisoning the air for everyone.”

“For more than a decade, we’ve been showing that the industry emits far more methane than they or government agencies admit," Jackson said. “This study is capstone evidence. And yet nothing changes.”

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Read more of AP’s climate coverage at http://www.apnews.com/climate-and-environment

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When Will Methane Emissions Fall?

Jessica Hullinger
Wed, March 13, 2024 



Current conditions: Storms dropped hail stones big enough to leave craters in the ground in Argentina • Denver is expecting more than a foot of snow • A wildfire outbreak is possible in Texas and Oklahoma.

THE TOP FIVE

1. IEA: Methane emissions from energy still high but could fall soon

Methane emissions from energy production around the world reached a record high in 2019, and have remained at that level ever since, with 2023 being no exception, according to the International Energy Agency’s 2024 Global Methane Tracker. Methane is a greenhouse gas that traps more heat than carbon dioxide, and is responsible for about one-third of the total rise in global temperatures compared to pre-industrial levels. Fossil fuel production is not the only source of methane emissions, but it is a big one, and it is within our control. Improvements to oil and gas infrastructure can reduce methane leaks, for example.

Energy production is the third largest source of methane emissions. IEA

Last year oil, gas, and coal producers added more than 120 million metric tonnes of methane to the atmosphere, a number that is “unacceptably high,” said the IEA’s chief energy economist Tim Gould. The agency called for a 75% reduction in methane emissions from fossil fuels this decade to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, and said new policies, pledges, and methane-tracking satellites could bring emissions down soon. “If all methane pledges made by countries and companies to date are implemented in full and on time, it would be sufficient to cut methane emissions from fossil fuels by 50% by 2030,” the IEA said. “However, most pledges are not yet backed up by plans for implementation.”

2. Biden administration unveils infrastructure plan for electric freight trucks

The Biden administration yesterday released details of its plan to create the infrastructure needed to electrify the nation’s trucking fleet. “Heavy duty vehicles have a disproportionate effect on pollution, as large diesel engines release many more particulate emissions than light-duty vehicles do,” explained Jameson Dow at Electrek. Indeed the transportation sector accounts for about 30% of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions, and more than a fifth of that comes from the biggest trucks. Phase 1 of the plan is to build out charging and hydrogen fueling hubs along some 12,000 miles of roads between 2024 and 2027, targeting some of the busiest routes first, including those around major ports. After the hubs are established, the subsequent phases would then connect those hubs to one another, and then expand the network. Here is a look at the hubs:

Joint Office of Energy and Transportation

3. Climate change threatens world’s banana production

Did you know there’s a World Banana Forum? The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FOA) hosts the annual gathering so the “main stakeholders of the global banana supply-chain work together to achieve consensus on best practices for sustainable production and trade.” This week the event took place in Rome, and climate change was top of the agenda. “Farmers are battling daily with unpredictable weather patterns, scorching sun, floods, hurricanes, and increased cases of plant diseases,” said Anna Pierides, a sustainable sourcing manager at the Fairtrade Foundation. She warned that farmers may go out of business if they do not get more support and see fairer prices. “There will be some price increases, indeed,” said Pascal Liu, senior economist at the FAO. “If there’s not a major increase in supply, I project that banana prices will remain relatively high in the coming years.” Bananas are the world’s most exported fruit.

4. Greta Thunberg hauled away from Swedish parliament

For the second day in a row, police forcibly removed Greta Thunberg from the entrance to the Swedish parliament in Stockholm. The 21-year-old climate activist and other protesters began their demonstration there yesterday, protesting against what they see as inaction from political leaders in addressing the climate crisis. After Thunberg refused to move, police lifted her by the arms and put her about 20 meters away from the building’s door.

5. Bezos Earth Fund invests in making meat alternatives taste better

Jeff Bezos’ philanthropic organization, the Bezos Earth Fund, is pouring $60 million into setting up hubs at universities where researchers will work to improve the texture, taste, and nutritional value of meat alternatives. We’re not talking about “lab grown” meat here, but plant products made to taste like meat. Animal agriculture accounts for up to 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the United Nations, and meat consumption is expected to grow by 50% by 2050. Meat alternatives could reduce the environmental footprint of the food system, but only if they taste good enough to convert enough meat lovers. Last week Oscar Mayer announced it had partnered with a Bezos-backed food startup to create meatless hot dogs and sausages that “not only deliver on great taste, but also bring the smell, appearance, texture, and grill marks consumers desire and want.”

Oscar Mayer's plant-based sausges and hot dogs 

KraftHeinz

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IEA wants methane emissions from oil and gas sector reduced faster

DPA
Wed, March 13, 2024

Executive Director of the International Energy Agency Fatih Birol speaks during the Annual Meeting 2019 of the World Economic Forum. The International Energy Agency (IEA) has called for methane emissions in the oil and gas sector to be reduced more quickly in order to achieve climate protection targets. Valeriano Di Domenico/World Economic Forum/dpa


The International Energy Agency (IEA) has called for methane emissions in the oil and gas sector to be reduced more quickly in order to achieve climate protection targets.

According to the IEA in Paris on Wednesday, almost 120 million tons of methane were released in 2023 from the production of these two fossil fuels, a slight increase on the previous year. In addition, around 10 million tons of methane were released from bioenergy sources such as the use of biomass.

The main emitters of methane pollution are the US, Russia and China.

A reduction in methane emissions of 75% by 2030 is necessary to limit global warming, said IEA Director Fatih Birol. It is now important to translate commitments made by almost 200 countries at the UN Climate Change Conference in Dubai last December into action, he said. This alone would halve methane emissions by 2030.

Methane is responsible for almost a third of the global rise in temperature since the Industrial Revolution and the energy sector is the second largest source of emissions from human activities, according to the IEA.

Although methane volatilizes faster in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, it is a much stronger greenhouse gas during its short lifetime. Reducing methane emissions is therefore one of the best ways to limit global warming and improve air quality in the short term, the agency said.

The IEA calculated that around 40% of methane emissions from fossil fuel extraction in 2023 could have been avoided without additional costs, as the value of the methane captured was higher than the cost of the abatement measure.

Methane emissions are produced in the energy industry by leaking pipelines or during extraction as a by-product, which is often flared off, although not all methane is converted into carbon dioxide.


Methane emissions from energy sector rose in 2023: IEA

Nick Perry
Wed, March 13, 2024 

Methane leaks from energy production, transportation infrastructures -- such as gas pipelines -- and from deliberate releases during maintenance (JOE RAEDLE)


Planet-heating methane released by the fossil fuel industry rose to near record highs in 2023 despite technology available to curb this pollution at virtually no cost, the International Energy Agency said Wednesday.

Slashing emissions of methane -- second only to carbon dioxide for its contribution to global warming -- is essential to meeting international targets on climate change, the IEA said.

The Paris-based agency said failing to curb methane leaks from oil and gas projects was a "massive missed opportunity" to prevent losses and reduce emissions of the potent greenhouse gas.

"Emissions of methane from fossil fuel operations remain unacceptably high... There is no reason for emissions to remain as high as they are," IEA chief energy economist Tim Gould told reporters ahead of the release of the agency's annual Global Methane Tracker report. Countries and companies could slash these emissions from fossil fuels in half by 2030 if they deliver on their methane promises in full, the IEA said.

Methane is responsible for around 30 percent of the global warming experienced today, according to the UN Environment Programme.

While some 40 percent of methane is released from natural sources, mainly wetlands, human activities are responsible for the rest.

Agriculture is the main source but the next largest is the energy sector, where methane leaks out from energy infrastructure such as gas pipelines and from deliberate releases during maintenance.

- Major leaks -

These emissions have risen three years in a row, the IEA said.

It said nearly 120 million tonnes was released in 2023 -- a small rise compared with 2022, and close to the record high in 2019.

And a significant proportion of the 2023 emissions, around 40 percent, "could have been avoided at no net cost" using tried and tested methods to prevent leakages, said IEA energy expert Christophe McGlade.

"It still represents a massive missed opportunity," he said.

To limit global temperature rises to internationally agreed levels, methane emissions from fossil fuels need to be cut 75 percent by 2030, the IEA said.

This would require about $170 billion in spending, "less than 5 percent of the income generated by the fossil fuel industry in 2023," it added.

Two-thirds of methane emissions from fossil fuels come from just 10 countries.

China leads for methane from coal production, while in the oil and gas sector the United States generates the most emissions, followed by Russia.

But some countries release far less methane than others, with Norway the most efficient at preventing emissions and Turkmenistan and Venezuela the least, the IEA said.

Last year witnessed a surge in large-scale methane leaks, the IEA said, including a well blowout in Kazakhstan that lasted more than 200 days.

- 'Low-hanging fruit' -

The IEA said advancements in satellite monitoring would provide a clearer picture of these events.

In early March, a new methane-tracking satellite backed by the US-based Environment Defence Fund, a non-profit organisation, was launched into orbit on a SpaceX rocket.

In a separate study published Wednesday in the journal Nature, researchers found that six major oil and gas regions in the US may be losing on average nearly three percent of supply as methane.

These regions -- comprising roughly half of onshore oil production and 29 percent of gas -- may be contributing 6.2 million tonnes per year of methane emissions, three times official government estimates.

"Together, the emissions quantified here represent an annual loss of roughly US$1 billion in commercial gas value and a US$9.3 billion annual social cost," read the study.

Methane is far more powerful than CO2 at trapping heat in the atmosphere but relatively short-lived, making it a key target for countries wanting to slash emissions quickly and slow climate change.

More than 150 countries -- including Azerbaijan, host of the next UN climate talks -- have promised a 30 percent reduction by 2030.

Oil and gas firms have meanwhile pledged to slash methane emissions by 2050.

But these commitments were not backed up by detailed plans, the IEA said.

Meanwhile, energy think tank Ember said methane from coal, in particular, was being overlooked in these pledges despite being a major source of emissions that could be cleaned up at low cost.

"There are cost-effective technologies available today, so this is a low-hanging fruit of tackling methane," said Sabina Assan, a methane analyst at Ember.

np-bl/cw