methane

The Trump administration is proposing to repeal most of the requirements of a 2016 rule meant to reduce wasted methane from oil and natural gas drilling on federal land.

In November, ExxonMobil signed a commitment with several companies aimed at reducing methane emissions. That agreement built off earlier efforts the company had announced to enhance voluntary methane reduction.

A US-government-sponsored program is putting new methane leak detection systems to the test with a goal of achieving functionality costs of $3,000/year/wellsite while hitting stringent performance criteria.

With the API and a multi-operator group passing separate programs aimed at reducing methane emissions, the discussions on what defines an acceptable level of regulation continues within the industry.

BP, Eni, ExxonMobil, Repsol, Shell, Statoil, Total, and Wintershall committed to further reduce methane emissions from the natural gas assets they operate around the world.

Southwest Research Institute has developed a leak detection system to autonomously monitor pipelines for hazardous chemical spills. R&D Magazine recently recognized the system as one of the 100 most significant innovations of 2017.

In recent years there has been a spike of research to determine what the extent of emissions are from fracked oil and gas wells. While much discussion has surrounded methane emissions, a greenhouse gas, less attention has been paid to air toxics.

ExxonMobil announced an enhanced program to reduce methane emissions from its production and midstream facilities across the US. The program includes a commitment to switch out more than 1,000 high-bleed pneumatic devices over 3 years.

Three experts from different sectors discussed the challenge of methane and regulation at the first panel session of the 2017 SPE Health, Safety, Security, Environment, and Social Responsibility Conference–North America in New Orleans.

The US EPA’s 2016 New Source Performance Standards updated the 2012 standards by adding requirements for the industry to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, specifically methane. The 2016 NSPS also covers hydraulically fractured oil wells and production, processing, transmission and storage activities.