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New Energy World
New Energy World embraces the whole energy industry as it connects and converges to address the decarbonisation challenge. It covers progress being made across the industry, from the dynamics under way to reduce emissions in oil and gas, through improvements to the efficiency of energy conversion and use, to cutting-edge initiatives in renewable and low carbon technologies.
US announces funding to reduce methane emissions from oil and gas sector
17/8/2022
The US Department of Energy (DOE) has announced up to $32mn in funding towards the research and development of new monitoring, measurement and mitigation technologies to help detect, quantify and reduce methane emissions across oil and gas producing regions in the US.
After CO2, methane is the most abundant greenhouse gas (GHG) warming the planet, and methane emissions contribute significantly to the GHG intensity of natural gas. The projects awarded through the funding aim to develop an efficient, resilient, and leak-tight US natural gas infrastructure, while supporting President Biden’s national goal to cut global methane emissions by 30% from 2020 levels by 2030, the DOE announced.
The US has more than two million active, abandoned or repurposed wells, as well as its oil and natural gas pipeline network, compressor stations, and other oil and gas infrastructure that emit approximately 8mn tonnes of methane annually (equivalent to 200mn tonnes of CO2 – the amount of annual CO2 emissions from 400,000 vehicles).
Significant progress has been made over the past decade for detecting and quantifying methane emissions at the source using surface-based technologies such as hand-held measurement devices and vehicle-based detection sensors, but these technologies cannot quickly assess large areas. Other technologies, such as atmospheric sensing equipment, attached to satellites or manned and unmanned aircraft, can better estimate the volume of methane emissions across wide areas, but these measurements are typically less accurate than surface-based methods.
Selected projects under the funding will help to advance networks of surface-based methane sensor technologies for more timely monitoring of methane emissions across large areas of oil- and natural gas-producing basins. Other projects will design an integrated methane monitoring platform that will enable early detection and improved quantification of methane emissions along the entire natural gas supply chain to advance the accuracy of methane emissions estimates.
