The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) revealed a new “find and fix” virtual-reality (VR) experience, the Methane CH4llenge simulation, which takes users into a digitally simulated wellsite to show the ease and efficiency of controlling key sources of methane emissions, an increasingly important challenge for the oil and gas industry.
Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas that is 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide in the first 2 decades after its release. It is also the main ingredient in natural gas and is a saleable product when captured. Methane emissions from human activity are responsible for 25% of the warming our planet is experiencing now. Worldwide, the oil and gas industry is one of the largest sources of these emissions. Yet, cutting oil and gas emissions is straightforward and inexpensive.
“Reducing methane across the oil and gas industry is one of the fastest, most cost-effective ways to slow the rate of warming today,” said Mark Brownstein, EDF senior vice president of energy. “For industry, methane emissions are also a critical challenge—one that will only grow as policymakers and investors worldwide increasingly focus on methane’s outsized climate effects, and as competitive threats from cleaner alternatives intensify.”