E-Learning

Methane emissions are responsible for about 25% of current global warming and the oil and gas sector is one of the largest anthropogenic sources of methane. The IPCC, in its “Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 degrees”, noted that emissions of Short-Lived Climate Pollutants like methane and black carbon need to be reduced by 35% or more by 2050 to stay below the 1.5 degrees target, while the International Energy Agency identified upstream methane emissions as one of the most importan...

Switching from coal-fired to gas-fired electricity generation is a way to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, as life cycle emissions of CO2 are less from gas power stations than coal. However, if methane emissions are also considered, the picture becomes less clear-cut, as the literature shows a large variability in upstream fugitive methane emissions. In some cases, there may be more upstream methane emissions from gas-fired electricity generation, however this does not overwhelm the benefits...

In-situ measurement of emissions (such as methane and ethane) from offshore oil and gas platforms is difficult, and limited, due to logistical problems. However, information about such emissions is vital to both the oil and gas industry and environmental monitors. In context, the energy supply sector was responsible for 11% of the UK's methane emissions in 2016. Starting with the Elgin uncontrolled leak in 2012, the UK National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS) has made repeated airbor...

"The Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) ensures the safe, efficient, orderly, and environmentally responsible development of oil, oil sands, natural gas, and coal resources over their entire life cycle in the western Canadian province of Alberta. We regulate over 80 per cent of Canada's petroleum industry including 422,000 kilometers of pipeline, 170,000 producing wells, and over 50,000 oil and gas facilities. The AER created new regulations to reduce methane emissions from the upstream oil an...

"Quantification and localisation of methane emissions at facility scale such as landfills, poultry farms and oil and gas facilities is important to establish effective mitigation policies. Enhancing accuracy in source attribution at shorter temporal scales supports emission reduction from industrial activities. However, carrying out accurate quantification of emission at facility scale is not a trivial task. Given the spatial extent, time and labour consuming surveys are necessary. Punctua...

"Open path laser gas monitoring is now well established as a preferred technique for the detection of leaks and fugitive emissions of toxic and greenhouse gases from industrial operations. The usefulness of the technique has recently been enhanced by combining data from multiple open path measurements with meteorological data and dispersion modeling, making it possible to estimate with good accuracy the magnitude and source of unplanned gas releases and their potential impact on downwind rece...

"Methane (CH4) is an important greenhouse gas as it contributes ¼25% of the direct radiative forcing impact of carbon dioxide (CO2), and atmospheric CH4 has grown over 3x as fast as CO2 since the industrial revolution. Among the diverse CH4 sources globally, mitigating CH4 from the oil and gas (O&G) sector is key for several reasons: (i) The O&G sector is one of the largest anthropogenic CH4 sources. (ii) There it can be cost-effectively captured and used as an energy source. (iii) Mitigatin...

The OGCI (Oil and Gas Climate Initiative) targets to reduce Methane Intensity under 0.25% with an aim to reach 0.20%. With Methane having a *86-times higher GWP in a 20-year perspective compared to CO2 (*2013 IPCC AR5 p714) it is understandable that accurate methane emission calculation throughout the gas supply chain is important. In current state, most methane emission values that are reported are based on estimation models instead of actual measurements, which is a concern in the gas indus...

"Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, responsible for more than 25% of today's global warming. Reducing methane emissions from the oil and gas industry is one of the fastest, most cost-effective ways currently available to slow the rate of climate change. Several countries (e.g., Mexico, Canada, Climate and Clean Air Coalition [CCAC] ministers) and operators (e.g., members of the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative [OGCI]) have announced pledges to reduce methane emissions from the oil and gas supp...

"We report the development, and field validation, of a recently commercially available, portable and rugged, trace gas analyzer for the measurement of atmospheric methane (and carbon dioxide). Supported in part under the DOE/ARPA-E, MONITOR1 program, the purpose of the development was to make available a low-cost, high-sensitivity instrument that would become the core of a complete system for the localization and quantification of methane leaks from industrial sites related to oil & gas opera...