Energy

Capturing Methane From Oil And Gas Operations Is Doable And Profitable


Unintended methane releases could upend global efforts to curb climate change. That’s the conclusion of a just-released United Nations report and it’s why the U.S. Senate just thwarted a plan by the previous administration to ease methane restrictions. Indeed, the UN’s goal is to cut those heat-trapping emissions by 45% by 2030 using promising technologies. 

The movement to regulate methane releases is supported among major oil and gas producers that have already invested in mitigation efforts. Moreover, companies like ShellEquinor, BPTotal, Statoil and EQT are thinking long term: without methane controls, the world can’t limit temperature increases, which then dampens the prospects for natural gas usage; methane is a byproduct of natural gas that, if captured from leaking pipelines and new wells, can be resold.

“Cutting methane is the strongest lever we have to slow climate change over the next 25 years and complements necessary efforts to reduce carbon dioxide,” says Inger Andersen, executive director of United Nations Environment Program. She adds that international cooperation is an absolute.

The UN report says that, globally, methane emissions are on the rise once again: agriculture is responsible for 40% of those releases. Fossil fuels, comparatively, contribute 35% while landfills make up 20%. The fossil fuel sector is ripe for change because the current technologies to limit escaping methane now exist — something that could take a bite out of rising temperatures. Notably, methane is 84 times more potent than CO2 over a 20-year time period. 

The U.S. Senate reversed Donald Trump’s policy under the Congressional Review Act. If a regulation was enacted in the closing days of an administration, it can be rolled back with a simple majority. In this case, the vote to undo Trump’s methane rules had bipartisan support (52-42), although not the 60 votes needed to withstand a filibuster. 

The U.S. House will assuredly vote for the measure. And President Biden is certain to sign the bill — and may go a step further than President Obama: he sought to reduce methane emissions by 45% by 2025, from 2012 levels.

‘Low Hanging Fruit’

The Obama-Biden team saw natural gas as a bridge to renewables — but only if environmental safeguards were in place. The journal Science, for example, said the leaking rate from oil and gas operations is 2.3%. If that methane could be captured and marketed to chemical makers and manufacturers, the Obama administration said that natural gas producers could increase revenues by $188 million yearly while also reducing the level of greenhouse gases. 

Using a “plasma technology,” Tucker Perkins, chief executive of the Propane Education & Research Council, says success is at hand. His group is working with multiple companies, including Cogent Energy Systems, to convert the captured methane into propane. That propane is then stored, transported, and turned into a commercial product. To be precise, propane moves like a liquid but is used as a gas. It is considered to be a “refrigerant.” 

“By working with reclaimed methane and other renewable sources to make propane, our industry is doing something responsible for the environment and practical for the economy,” says Perkins, in an interview. “We’re collecting methane – a potent greenhouse gas — that’s currently being wasted and turning it into a clean, commercial energy product.”

While the effort to curb methane emissions has broad political and corporate support, the smaller oil and gas developers still have reservations. Amid the coronavirus and when the demand for their resources has fallen, they may not have the capital to invest in methane controls — something that West Virginia Senator Shelly Moore Capito said would ultimately lead to a “regulatory war on oil and gas.” (Capito has also denied the science behind climate change.) 

The Environmental Protection Agency previously issued a report saying that methane emissions had decreased 23% between 1990 and 2018. Less venting and flaring were cited. That said, the Trump administration admitted that nixing Obama’s methane rules would lead to greater emissions. 

One key Democratic U.S. lawmaker says that reversing Trump’s methane policies is the “low-hanging fruit” in the battle to curb climate change. Another one called it the “most important environmental vote of this decade.” It’s why the United Nations supports the effort and it’s why the European Union is also on the cusp of creating a plan to cut methane releases. But more significantly, it’s a policy endorsed by major oil and gas producers — and the American Petroleum Institute — because it is popular, doable, and profitable.





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