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Shell becomes latest oil and gas company to test smart methane sensors

Methane Detector Challenge
Canada
2017

This week, the oil and gas giant Shell took a positive step toward addressing methane emissions. The company announced a new technology trial at a wellsite in Alberta, Canada, where it is piloting a specially designed laser to continuously monitor emissions of methane, a powerful pollutant known to leak from oil and gas equipment.

The move by Shell is a glimpse into the future and demonstrates growing market interest in smart, sensor-based methane detection technology. Shell’s project joins a similar field test already underway in Texas, operated by the Norwegian producer Statoil, and a California utility pilot run by Pacific Gas and Electric Company.

Each of these deployments is promising, but the ultimate test will be broad-scale adoption of innovations that generate actual methane reductions.

For industry, there is an incentive to move ahead. An estimated $30 billion of natural gas (which is largely methane) is wasted every year due to leaks and flaring from oil and gas operations worldwide. In addition, roughly 25 percent of global warming is driven by methane. Oil and gas methane emissions also contain chemicals that adversely affect public health.

For these reasons, methane is a problem that has caught the attention of regulators, investors and consumers alike. Advancing new technologies to enable the oil and gas industry to tackle this challenge more efficiently is key, even as companies use established tools to manage emissions now.

 

Collaborations Spark Methane Innovation

When you bring the right people to the table, innovative solutions will follow. Behind the Shell, Statoil and PG&E demonstration projects is a collaborative initiative, the Methane Detectors Challenge, begun by the Environmental Defense Fund four years ago. The project united eight oil and gas companies, R&D experts, and technology innovators in an effort to accelerate the development of next-generation methane detectors.

The formation of this project was motivated by a key insight: new technology to manage emissions needs to be created and deployed faster than ever. The Methane Detectors Challenge offers a unique resource to innovators – access to real facilities and collaboration with potential customers – which is essential to help entrepreneurs understand the market, demonstrate demand, and ultimately achieve economies of scale.

Both the Statoil and Shell pilots are using a solar-powered laser, created by Colorado-based Quanta3. The technology uses the Internet to provide real-time data analytics to wellsite managers via mobile devices or web portals.

 

Continuous Visibility, Faster Response

The oil and gas industry has a lot to gain from smart methane sensors that can prevent the loss of valuable product and reduce pollution.

Imagine a future where continuous leak detection systems allow operators to digitally monitor methane emissions occurring across thousands of sites. It’s a game-changer on the horizon. The burgeoning field of continuous methane monitoring offers a range of possibilities – including technologies capable of identifying emission spikes in real-time, allowing operators to cut mitigation time from months to days. Over time, smart sensors on wells may even help predict and prevent leaks and malfunctions before they occur.

Smart Methane Sensors Triggering New Market

 

The methane-sensing laser deployed by Shell and Statoil is one of many technologies in the emerging methane mitigation industry. In North America alone, more than 130 companies provide low-cost methane management technologies and services to oil and gas customers – a number likely to expand as innovators innovate, pollution requirements tighten, and producers increasingly appreciate the urgency of dealing with methane to maintain their social license to operate.

Smart automation technologies are already being used across the oil and gas industry to improve operating and field efficiencies. Continuous methane detection technology is the next logical step, which has the potential to provide significant economic, environmental and societal benefits.

The Shell pilot is a milestone to celebrate and we recognize the company for its early leadership. Now, we need governments and industry to show the determination needed to meet the methane challenge head-on. Sustained leadership is a prerequisite. But the keys to solving this problem are smart policies that incentivize ongoing innovation, and clear methane reduction goals—supported by technologies like continuous monitoring.

Image source: Shell/Ian Jackson

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Methane: The Next Frontier for European Climate Leadership

Mark Brownstein, Vice President, Climate and Energy

Mark Brownstein, Vice President, Climate and Energy

With 2016 on pace to be the hottest year ever recorded, it’s never been more urgent for countries to work together to protect our climate. Europe, with its long history of climate leadership, has a pivotal role to play in driving the next wave of efforts.

European leadership was central to achieving the historic Paris Climate Agreement, as well as recent breakthrough agreements on carbon dioxide emissions from aviation and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) in refrigerators and air conditioners.

But there is one critical climate opportunity still to be taken on in Europe, and that’s methane – one of the biggest levers we have today to slow the rate of warming.

The other important greenhouse gas

Methane is a powerful greenhouse pollutant, over 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide during the first 20 years it hangs around in the atmosphere. In fact, scientists say methane accounts for around 25% of the warming experienced today.

Accumulation of CO2 in the atmosphere determines the amount of warming our planet will experience; reducing it now lowers the chance of long-term catastrophic climate change. Cutting methane affects the rate of warming, decreasing the probability of intense heat waves and slowing rapid sea level rise. That’s why an effective climate strategy requires action to reduce both carbon dioxide and methane.

Shrinking the methane footprint

Natural gas is mostly methane, and globally the oil and gas sector is one of its largest contributors. Curbing methane across this industry is also the single biggest, most affordable opportunity to eliminate a sizable chunk of these emissions.

Across the supply chain, tens of millions of tons escape each year. In 2012, the industry leaked as much methane as was produced by Norway, the world’s seventh largest producer. Losses would be higher if they included wasted gas now burned off in flares rather than put to productive use.

A recent study concluded that methane from fossil fuel development is up to 60% greater than previously estimated. This mirrors new measurements in the United States that strongly indicate the same. Without action, experts say, emissions will climb by more than 20% worldwide by 2030.

Natural gas is widely marketed today as a low-carbon fuel, emitting roughly half the carbon dioxide of coal when burned. But that ignores the methane problem. Consequently, whether gas can truly be seen as a greener substitute for coal and oil  remains in question until the methane that is emitted is fully measured, regularly monitored and significantly reduced.

If the world were to cut oil and gas methane emissions by 45% by 2025, as the United States, Canada and Mexico recently agreed to do, it would have the same climate benefit over 20 years as closing one-third of the world’s coal plants.

Untapped opportunity for Europe

The International Energy Agency says oil and gas methane emissions are among five key pillars to reduce global greenhouse emissions. Fortunately, there are cost-effective strategies to reduce these emissions, creating important opportunities for countries and companies trying to meet their greenhouse-gas goals.

Curbing oil and gas methane requires little in the way of new capital or fundamental changes in business practice. Often, it’s as easy as tightening valves and repairing leaks. In places like the state of Colorado, where industry reductions are required, companies are finding that the benefits outweigh costs of regularly checking for leaks.

Europe is a central player in the global oil and gas industry. Four of the world’s top 15 gas-producing corporations are headquartered in Europe, with the continent producing 8% of the world’s natural gas. Presently, Europe is the largest gas importer, globally, and the IEA predicts the continent’s gas to rise over the next decade. For its emissions, official inventories rank total EU oil-and-gas methane higher than those reported for Iran or Saudi Arabia.

Taking the next steps

In May, the five Nordic states committed to developing a global target to reduce oil and gas methane. It’s a step, but we need greater European ambition to seize the full climate benefit offered by reducing methane emissions.

European companies have begun engaging more in the methane challenge. BP, Engie, ENI, Repsol, Statoil and Total have all expressed concern about methane. They’ve started surveying parts of their operations for emissions and disclosing that information. But so far only a few European companies have an action plan to reduce their global methane emissions, and none have specific reduction targets. All of them should be doing both.

Likewise, European nations inside and outside of the European Union should revise and implement national standards for oil and gas methane and incorporate measures into commitments for achieving the greenhouse reductions agreed to in Paris. And while Europe’s data suggest that its oil and gas methane emissions have declined, studies have shown such estimates to routinely undercount emissions. Europe could also be instrumental in developing a worldwide oil and gas methane goal, building on the Nordic commitment and cultivating support in other parts of the world, similarly to how it led the international community in setting limits on global aircraft and refrigerant industry emissions.

In a world where we are looking for every available tool to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and stay below dangerous climate thresholds, we can’t afford missed opportunities. Europe can affect real change in the oil and gas industry and reduce methane emissions, showing once again that it can propel a global community forward on climate solutions.

This article first appeared on The Economist Perspectives blog, which can be viewed here

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