Methane hunters tap new technology to reshape policing of U.S. greenhouse emissions

Permian Basin Royalty Trust

23/05/2023 12:00

By Liz Hampton
       ARTESIA, New Mexico, May 23 (Reuters) - Charlie Barrett
walks through an oilfield in New Mexico's southeastern desert,
where the air smells of rotten eggs and old pumpjacks sit among
shrub oaks, and turns on an infrared camera that can detect
emissions from oil and gas equipment. 
    Barrett, who works for environmental group Earthworks, is
hunting for methane - a greenhouse gas accounting for about a
third of global warming that has become a focus for the oil
industry's and the Biden administration's climate agenda. 
    He points the $120,000 camera at a thin metal pole sticking
out of the ground near a rusty storage tank. The rotten egg
smell is a telltale sign of hydrogen sulfide, which can be found
in the state's natural gas alongside the main component,
methane, meaning gas is seeping out somewhere nearby. 
    Sure enough, the camera's viewfinder captures a dark stream
of methane spewing out of the pole.
    Methane emissions, which come from oil and natural gas
production, plant decay and agricultural waste, are 25 times
more potent in warming than carbon dioxide. Restricting leaks,
as well as routine venting and flaring, from oil and gas wells
and equipment is one of the fastest way to cut methane
emissions, which are often undetectable to the naked eye and for
the most part odorless.
        Environmentalists like Barrett have searched for leaking
wells and pipelines for years. But they cannot trespass on
private property - where most oil and gas infrastructure resides
- and their cameras are not equipped to measure the volume of
methane coming from a facility, information that regulators need
to decide whether to pursue their complaints.      
  
        That is about to change: Early next year, an affiliate
of the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), a climate activist
group that aims to slash methane emissions from energy and
farming by 30% this decade, will launch a satellite dedicated to
finding methane emissions. Unlike existing commercial operators
that operate on subscription, MethaneSAT will freely provide its
location and methane scale data to the public. The company aims
to scan 80% of the world’s oil and gas producing regions. 
  
        Activist groups are also about to be empowered by new
Biden administration regulations that propose requiring oil and
gas companies to address so-called super-emitting emissions –
those of at least 10 kilograms (22 lbs) per hour – that are
documented by outside groups like Earthworks or EDF. The fact
that these groups will be armed with never-before publicly
available precision information means even companies operating
in remote areas will no longer be able to hide their emissions.
  
    "Accountability will come, whether it is through the work of
grassroots organizations or the new satellites coming online
this year," said Marcelo Mena, former environment minister of
Chile and head of Global Methane Hub, which secured over $300
million in funding from more than 20 major philanthropic
institutions to help reduce methane emissions. 
         
    INDEPENDENT INSPECTORS
    New Mexico, the fastest growing and second-largest U.S.
oil-producing state, will be a test case for how activists and
satellite services might stop emissions releases from oil and
gas facilities. The state has enacted more rigorous regulations
around methane than other leading producers such as Texas and
North Dakota. 
    New Mexico accounted for half of all the new U.S. oil
production last year and its output rose 66% between 2021 and
the start of 2023. But despite a reputation for enacting
regulations, the state lacks the inspectors to fully ensure that
emissions from its oil and gas infrastructure do not go
unnoticed or ignored. 
    It produces more than four times the oil that neighboring
Colorado does, but has just 16 inspectors compared to Colorado's
27. It would take more than nine years to inspect all the
state's 4,300 petroleum storage tanks, according to a report
from the state's environment department. 
    "Oil and gas production in New Mexico has grown faster, writ
large, than investments made in the Oil Conservation Division
(OCD) internal capacity," said Dylan Fuge, director of the
state's regulator. His agency conducts more than 30,000
inspections each year, and tries to physically visit each site
at least once every three years, Fuge said.
    That gap has created an opening for local activists such as
Earthworks. Last year, the group filed 67 reports on potential
releases in New Mexico's southeast Permian basin and 11 from an
area in the northwestern part of the state, Barrett said.
    New Mexico's Environmental Department launched 22
investigations based on the complaints, but has not disclosed
its findings to Earthworks, Barrett said. 
    In early April, New Mexico's regulator issued violation
notices and proposed penalties to six oil and gas producers for
violating its methane venting and flaring rule, including Avant
Natural Resources, Permian Resources Corp and Tascosa Energy
Partners. The OCD found that 10 facilities operated by those six
firms were responsible for 15% of all flaring and venting in
2022 in the state. 
    Permian Resources and Avant did not respond to a request for
comment. Tascosa Energy Partners said it had reached out to the
regulator to clarify what happened and why flaring was the best
course of action. 
    Flaring is the controlled combustion of methane into carbon
dioxide, which is 25 times less impactful as a greenhouse gas
than methane over a century, making it better from an
environmental standpoint than venting, which involves the direct
release of methane, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
    "We were very pro-active in resolving the issue," a Tascosa
spokesperson said.  
  
    OUTSIDE GROUPS
    More than half of the oil industry methane emissions in the
U.S. come from the Permian shale field, according to monitoring
firm GHGSat. The 86,000-square-mile region spans west Texas and
New Mexico's largest producing counties. GHGSat says 56% of its
satellite scans in the Permian detected greenhouse gas emissions
last year, up from 43% in 2021.
    In New Mexico, 34% of satellite scans last year by GHGSat
found emissions with an average rate of 850 kilograms per hour.
If one methane emission of this rate was sustained for a year,
that would equate to roughly 41,000 cars on the road. 
    The state's oil regulator in 2021 implemented a rule to curb
routine methane venting and flaring, while a separate initiative
by the state's Environment Department cracked down on leaks,
particularly from smaller facilities.  
    New Mexico operators are on track to capture 98% of produced
natural gas by 2026, and cut routine venting and flaring by 69%
between October 2021 and August 31 last year. 
    MethaneSAT, which counts billionaire former energy trader
John Arnold among its funders, will make its data publicly
available. 
    Satellite analytics firm Kayrros has partnerships with the
UNEP's International Methane Emissions Observatory and
International Energy Agency. GHGSat also works with oil and gas
firms and groups that help detect and fix pipeline leaks. 
    “We see reducing methane emissions in oil and gas as a
triple win: climate change, energy security and bottom-line,"
said Ben Ratner, executive director with JP MorganChase's
Sustainability Team, which drives development and implementation
of company-wide sustainability and climate initiatives. "Our O&G
clients are taking action and piloting new technologies and
working towards emissions reductions."

 (Reporting by Liz Hampton in Artesia, New Mexico; Editing by
Gary McWilliams and Claudia Parsons)
 ((Liz.Hampton@thomsonreuters.com; +1 832 571 8115; Reuters
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