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Exclusive: Fixing a leak can be simple and equivalent to closing a coal power station, making lack of action maddening, say analysts

#methane leaks

Spending to clean up their operations would be equivalent to only 5% of profits made last year, IEA estimates

Fossil fuel companies must pay tens of billions to reduce the emissions of methane from their operations or it will be almost impossible to meet global climate targets, the world’s energy watchdog has warned. The US is now the biggest source of methane emissions from oil and gas extraction, as a result of the massive expansion of its oil and gas sector, while China is the biggest emitter of methane from coal mining. Russia also continues to be a major emitter as its fossil fuel operations are poorly run. Leaks from coalmines and oil and gas wells are the biggest sources of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that has caused about 30% of the temperature increases seen to date, according to data published on Wednesday by the International Energy Agency (IEA). About 170bn cubic metres of methane was emitted from fossil fuel operations around the world last year, which is more than the entire natural gas production of Qatar. Yet many of these leaks could easily be plugged if the best practices developed in some countries – such as Norway, which has low methane leaks from its oil and gas drilling operations – were adopted around the world. Currently, the least efficient operations are about 100 times worse than the most efficient, with Turkmenistan and Venezuela the worst offenders. One well blowout in Kazakhstan last year produced large quantities of methane for more than 200 days.

#world #fossil fuel industry #methane leaks #climate crisis

The Biden administration is pausing new projects, for environmental reasons, to increase the export of liquefied natural gas (LNG) overseas.

Natural gas by itself is the least bad fossil fuel. But gas cannot be shipped – so it needs to be liquefied. This process causes it to become more damaging to the climate.

There's also the matter of methane leaks associated with natural gas.

Donald Trump has already stated that on Day One of his dictatorship that he will "drill drill drill". Trump is an existential threat to the planet.

#liquefied natural gas #lng #methane leaks #climate change #fossil fuels #jennifer granholm #greenhouse gas emissions #the environment #ali velshi #joe biden #biden administration #donald trump #existential threat #drill drill drill #election 2024

The findings cast doubt on the idea that natural gas can serve as a transitional fuel to a future powered entirely by renewables like solar

Excerpt from this story from the New York Times:

Natural gas, long seen as a cleaner alternative to coal and an important tool in the fight to slow global warming, can be just as harmful to the climate, a new study has concluded, unless companies can all but eliminate the leaks that plague its use.

It takes as little as 0.2 percent of gas to leak to make natural gas as big a driver of climate change as coal, the study found. That’s a tiny margin of error for a gas that is notorious for leaking from drill sites, processing plants and the pipes that transport it into power stations or homes and kitchens.

The bottom line: If gas leaks, even a little, “it’s as bad as coal,” said Deborah Gordon, the lead researcher and an environmental policy expert at Brown University and at the Rocky Mountain Institute, a nonprofit research organization focused on clean energy. “It can’t be considered a good bridge, or substitute.”

The peer-reviewed study, which also involved researchers from Harvard and Duke Universities and NASA and is set to be published next week in the journal Environmental Research Letters, adds to a substantial body of research that has poked holes in the idea that natural gas is a suitable transitional fuel to a future powered entirely by renewables, like solar and wind.

The findings throw up difficult questions about how much more money the nations of the world should invest in gas infrastructure to ward off the worst of global warming. The $370 billion Inflation Reduction Act passed by the United States Congress last year, designed to move the country away from fossil fuels and toward renewables, includes credits that would apply to some forms of natural gas.

#methane #natural gas #methane leaks #coal

Poor methane rules are costing tribes and taxpayers.

Excerpt from this story from Grist:

In 2019, oil and gas companies operating on tribal and federal lands lost $63 million in revenue from venting, flaring, and leaking infrastructure. That loss, according to a report from the Environmental Defense Fund and Taxpayers for Common Sense, shows that Indigenous nations lost the most potential royalty revenue: approximately $21.8 million. Researchers say that total loss across all lands represents enough natural gas to power 2.2 million households for a year — almost every home in New Mexico, North Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming combined. However, those numbers are likely much higher: researchers did not include emissions from Alaska, Michigan, Nebraska, Illinois, or Indiana.

Gas is wasted when it is released directly into the atmosphere through venting, or burned at the site of extraction by flaring, or when it leaks from aging or ill-fitting infrastructure. As a potent greenhouse gas with warming power 80-times that of carbon dioxide, methane is often released with additional air pollutants. Those emissions contribute heavily to climate change and poor healthcare outcomes for local communities.

Synapse Energy Economics, the consulting firm that conducted the analysis, found that 54 percent of the gas lost in 2019 was due to flaring, 46 percent to leaks, and less than 1 percent to venting. Researchers found that on federal lands, a majority of natural gas is lost to leaks while on tribal land, most loss is attributed to flaring. Overall, roughly $275 million worth of gas is lost through flaring.

Wasted methane shortchanges the royalties that tribal, state and federal governments collect for oil and gas production that often fund priorities like education, infrastructure and public services. According to the report, while tribal governments lost the most potential revenue, states lost $20.5 million and the federal government lost $21.3 million. Additional research showed that flaring rates on Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation lands atop the oil-rich Bakken formation were extremely high compared to public and tribal lands outside of North Dakota. Lost royalties from the MHA Nation totaled an estimated $19 million.

#Native Americans #tribal lands #public lands #methane leaks #flaring #royalties

Excerpt from this story from Nation of Change:

Methane is produced by decaying organic material. Natural sources, such as wetlands, account for roughly 40% of today’s global methane emissions. But the majority comes from human activities, such as farms, landfills and wastewater treatment plants – and fuel production. Oil, gas and coal together make up about a third of global methane emissions.

In all, methane is responsible for almost a third of the 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.2 degrees Fahrenheit) that global temperatures have risen since the industrial era.

Unfortunately, methane emissions are still rising. In 2021, atmospheric levels increased to 1,908 parts per billion, the highest levels in at least 800,000 years. Last year’s increase of 18 parts per billion was the biggest on record.

Among the sources, the oil and gas sector is best equipped to stop emitting because it is already configured to sell any methane it can prevent from leaking.

Methane leaks and “venting” in the oil and gas sector have numerous causes. Unintentional leaks can flow from pneumatic devices, valves, compressors and storage tanks, which often are designed to vent methane when pressures build.

Unlit or inefficient flares are another big source. Some companies routinely burn off excess gas that they can’t easily capture or don’t have the pipeline capacity to transport, but that still releases methane and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Nearly all of these emissions can be stopped with new components or regulations that prohibit routine flaring.

Making those repairs can pay off. Global oil and gas operations emitted more methane in 2021 than Canada consumed that entire year, according to IEA estimates. If that gas were captured, at current U.S. prices – $4 per million British thermal unit – that wasted methane would fetch around $17 billion. The IEA determined that a one-time investment of $11 billion would eliminate roughly 75% of methane leaks worldwide, along with an even larger amount of gas that is wasted by “flaring” or burning it off at the wellhead.

#methane #methane leaks

The new regulation comes as U.S. leaders arrive at the climate change conference in Egypt in a bid to the country's commitment to tackling climate change.

Excerpt from this Washington Post story:

In a bid to show U.S. commitment to tackling climate change, the Biden administration outlined in Egypt a renewed effort to curb emissions from domestic oil and gas producers.

At the U.N. Climate Change Conference, known as COP27, on Friday, the Environmental Protection Agency unveiled an updated proposal to regulate methane seeping from pipes and other equipment maintained by the U.S. oil and gas industry, the country’s biggest industrial source of the potent greenhouse gas.

Responsible for roughly a third of greenhouse gas warming today, methane traps about 80 times as much heat as carbon dioxide during its first 20 years in the atmosphere. Experts say curbing methane emissions is critical to prevent near-term warming.

The proposal, which was partially released during last year’s climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland, would be the first time the federal government requires existing facilities to find and fix methane leaks.

Under the proposal, the agency is seeking to compel oil and gas operators to use remote sensors to quickly address leaks and to require states to develop plans to curb methane from older wells. Gathering feedback from the industry over the past year, the EPA plans to offer companies more flexibility in how they monitor for leaks.

Federal regulators will also establish a program to respond to blowouts and other “super-emitter” events, allowing third-party groups to help quickly identify major leaks.

Officials say the regulations will reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by one percentage point below 2005 levels, adding to the roughly 40 percent cut expected to come from the Inflation Reduction Act passed earlier this year. A methane fee program included in that legislation would require oil and gas to pay for all emissions above a certain threshold — providing an incentive for operators to abide by the new regulations, Regan said.

#EPA #methane leaks #oil and gas industry

First footage shows gas leaks in Nord Stream 1 and 2, as 200m circle of gas escapes pipes

The Sun

Norwegian Armed forces have released the first footage of gas leaks within Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea. The footage was taken from a helicopter over the rupture in the pipe. The Norwegian Armed forces released this statement with the footage: "After the three gas leaks on the Nord Stream gas pipelines have occurred in the Baltic Sea, exclusion zones have been established around the leaks for the sake of the safety of ship and air traffic. Nord Stream 1 has two leaks northeast of Bornholm, Nord Stream 2 has one leak south of Dueodde. The leaks were discovered by the Norwegian Armed Forces' F-16 interceptor response unit. The defence is supporting in connection with the authorities' efforts regarding the leaks on the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea. The frigate Absalon and the environmental ship Gunnar Thorson are on their way to carry out water monitoring at the exclusion zones, and the Norwegian Defense Forces are also supporting with a helicopter capacity. In addition, the patrol ship Rota was in the area last night.

P.S. These are not bad news! On the contrary, it is very good to see that a project threatening European security, which was persistently pushed together by A. Merkel and other idiots useful to the Kremlin, is failing. The both Nord Stream projects and the opportunity given to the Kremlin to blackmail the European energy market greatly stimulated Putler's aggressive plans against Ukraine and all of Eastern Europe...