{"id":9389,"date":"2015-02-10T13:12:13","date_gmt":"2015-02-10T19:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/?p=9389"},"modified":"2015-02-10T14:52:33","modified_gmt":"2015-02-10T20:52:33","slug":"studies-provide-insight-on-two-overlooked-segments-of-oil-and-gas-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2015\/02\/10\/studies-provide-insight-on-two-overlooked-segments-of-oil-and-gas-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"Studies Provide Insight on Two Overlooked Segments of Oil and Gas Industry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scientists David Lyon and Ram\u00f3n Alvarez contributed to this post<\/em>
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Two studies released today in the journal of Environmental Science and Technology<\/em> provide new insights into methane emissions from significant sources in the oil and natural gas sector and underscore the urgency of taking action to address pollution from these sources. The studies\u2014focusing on the gathering and processing segment and the transmission and storage segment\u2014were led by researchers at Colorado State and Carnegie Mellon universities and Aerodyne Research, and included collaboration with EDF and companies in each of these segments.<\/p>\n

In the gathering and processing study<\/a>, researchers measured 130 gathering and processing facilities, finding emissions at gathering facilities ranging from 0.6 to 600 standard cubic feet of methane leaking per minute (scf\/m). For the transmission and storage study<\/a>, a different team led by CSU also collected extensive on-site and downwind measurements of methane at 45 transmission and storage sites. Site-level methane measurements ranged from 2 to 880 scf\/m, with an average measurement of 70 scf\/m. Of all the facilities measured for these studies, data suggests the natural gas emitted was worth about $25 million and had the 20-year climate impact equal to the emissions of 2 million passenger vehicles.<\/p>\n

The Administration has recently announced a goal of reducing methane emissions from the oil and gas sector by 40-45 percent below 2012 levels by 2025\u2014actions that will help prevent this needless waste. The announcement indicates that new standards will build on the technologies EPA evaluated in a set of five peer-reviewed, technical white papers (including technologies to find and fix leaks and to address emissions from compressors).<\/p>\n

The studies released today underscore the importance of strong federal actions to reduce emissions from sources in the gathering and processing and transmission and storage segments.\u00a0 In particular, measurements from both of the studies show that equipment leaks are an important source of emissions that can be addressed.\u00a0 Here are some of the findings:<\/p>\n