Methane Emissions from Natural Gas Production Sites in the United States: Data Synthesis and National Estimate

Citations Over TimeTop 10% of 2018 papers

Abstract

We used site-level methane (CH₄) emissions data from over 1000 natural gas (NG) production sites in eight basins, including 92 new site-level CH₄ measurements in the Uinta, northeastern Marcellus, and Denver-Julesburg basins, to investigate CH₄ emissions characteristics and develop a new national CH₄ emission estimate for the NG production sector. The distribution of site-level emissions is highly skewed, with the top 5% of sites accounting for 50% of cumulative emissions. High emitting sites are predominantly also high producing (>10 Mcfd). However, low NG production sites emit a larger fraction of their CH₄ production. When combined with activity data, we predict that this creates substantial variability in the basin-level CH₄ emissions which, as a fraction of basin-level CH₄ production, range from 0.90% for the Appalachian and Greater Green River to >4.5% in the San Juan and San Joaquin. This suggests that much of the basin-level differences in production-normalized CH₄ emissions reported by aircraft studies can be explained by differences in site size and distribution of site-level production rates. We estimate that NG production sites emit total CH₄ emissions of 830 Mg/h (95% CI: 530-1200), 63% of which come from the sites producing 4 emissions estimate is 2.3 times higher than the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's estimate and likely attributable to the disproportionate influence of high emitting sites.

Related Papers

• → Measurements of Methane Emissions from Natural Gas Gathering Facilities and Processing Plants: Measurement Results(2015)179 cited
• → A global review of methane policies reveals that only 13% of emissions are covered with unclear effectiveness(2023)59 cited
• Methane emission measurements of offshore oil and gas platforms(2019)
• → Re-Imagining Regulatory Approaches for Methane Emissions(2019)2 cited
• → Determination of European methane emissions, using concentration and isotope measurements(1994)2 cited