Surprise! Oil & Gas Majors' Internal Data - Permian Methane Leaks Far Worse Than Official Estimates

[hatrack]

Big oil and gas companies have internal data showing that their methane emissions in the vast Permian Basin “are likely significantly higher than official data” reported to the Environmental Protection Agency, says a new report by the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology.

The companies should adopt tougher surveillance measures to detect and control methane leaks, especially giant super-emitters that contribute to the greenhouse gases that cause climate change, says the report. “A very significant proportion of methane emissions appear to be caused by a small number of super-emitting leaks,” the report says, noting that a single leak experienced by one company may have accounted for more than 80 percent of the methane emissions that company reported to the EPA from its Permian oil and gas production in 2020.

EDIT

One company told the committee that it relied on “lease operator training and in-person inspections (a.k.a. ‘boots-on-the-ground’ inspections),” which the committee report said could not be scaled up over a large area to solve the super-emitting problem. Currently, the EPA requires oil and gas firms to inspect their facilities for leaks only twice a year. “The point is brutally clear,” the report says. “The operator’s technology experts were warning that the technology’s biggest risk was not that it would fail, but rather that it would succeed — and in doing so, would find more methane leaks that the operator would then be responsible for, with all of the accompanying repair costs and reputational risks that might ensue.”

President Biden’s climate and social spending bill, formerly known as the Build Back Better Act, would establish a “methane emissions reduction program” to spur oil and gas companies to cut planet-warming pollution. But the measure has stalled in the Senate for months because of opposition from Republicans and Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.).

EDIT

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/06/08/oil-gas-methane-house-science-permian/

[2naSalit]

1. Yeah, not surprised.