A new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences sheds light on a question that continues to vex industry executives and policymakers alike: How significant are
fugitive methane emissions from oil and gas production?
Fugitive methane emissions from natural gas systems represent a significant source of global warming pollution in the U.S. Reductions in methane emissions are urgently needed as part of the broader effort to slow the rate of global temperature rise.
A carbon tax could come back to bite natural gas producers big time if the EPA decides, along the lines of Cornell University research, that
fugitive methane emissions from hydraulic fracturing make natural gas as carbon - intensive as coal.
Fugitive methane emissions from distribution mains account for 32 percent of methane emissions from the U.S. natural gas distribution sector.
Not exact matches
Fugitive emissions like
methane challenge pollution control experts, because they do not come
from a more easily controllable «point source», like a smokestack or process pipe, which could be fitted with technology to capture or clean up the gas.
«This research supports other recent findings suggesting that
fugitive emissions from fossil - fuel industrial activity actually are the largest
methane source.
A University of Texas study
from last year — sponsored by the Environmental Defense Fund and the oil and natural gas industry — put
fugitive methane emissions at 0.42 percent of total production.
More and more people are learning about how bad fracking is, even Robert F. Kennedy jr, came out and publicly admitted that Fracking is not a safe bridge away
from fossil fuels and is worse for climate change then using coal because of the
fugitive methane emissions that are released in the fracking process's.
And it is true that over the short term,
fugitive methane emissions have the potential to erode most or all of the CO2
emissions benefit resulting
from switching
from coal to gas.
The analysis also included calculations of a producer's direct
emissions via flaring and venting processes,
emissions from entities using their own fuel, and
fugitive emissions of
methane from oil and gas operations and coal mining.
Present measurement and accounting of
fugitive emissions of
methane from unconventional gas extraction is inadequate.
The tar sands in Canada are an environmental disaster in other ways, but the incremental
emissions of greenhouse gases are small compared to the far greater threat of massive coal expansion in China, or potential
fugitive emission of
methane from fracking, or massive deforestation in Indonesia and Latin America, or any number of other major sources of greenhouse gases.
In addition to vented
emissions,
methane losses can occur
from leaks (also referred to as
fugitive emissions) in all parts of the infrastructure,
from connections between pipes and vessels, to valves and equipment.
We know a lot more about where
fugitive methane emissions come
from and how to address them.
The worksheets available below constitute the details each entity's production of oil & NGLs, natural gas, coal, and cement
from as early as 1854 to 2010, as well as additional sources of
emissions (such as vented CO2, flared CO2, own fuel use, and vented or
fugitive methane), non-energy uses of oil, gas, and coal,
emission factors for each fuel, calculation of
emissions attributed to each Carbon Major producer, and several summary worksheets by fuel and for cumulative
emissions by all entities.