Good-News Headlines on Reducing Emissions from The Environmental Partnership

Mark Green
Posted September 20, 2023

Lots of big headlines in The Environmental Partnership’s 2023 annual report – the industry-led initiative’s fifth yearly recap since it was launched in late 2017:

“Partnership Adds Methane Emissions Reduction Programs for Liquid Pipelines”

“Data: Partnership Continues Reductions at Top Methane Emissions Sources”

“Flare Volumes Continue to Decrease”

Take your pick: Each of those stories – and others – show continued significant progress in industry efforts to reduce methane emissions across the oil and natural gas supply chain, including production and transmission, a big development in the climate effort.

Mike Sommers, API president and CEO:

“The U.S. oil and natural gas industry is continuously evolving to promote better, safer and more efficient methods for producing affordable, reliable energy while reducing emissions. Industry-led initiatives like The Environmental Partnership play a critical role in driving progress across the entire industry. Tackling the challenge of reducing methane emissions requires not just words, but action, and I look forward to advancing The Partnership’s record of results in the years ahead.”

Let’s examine those headlines in more detail.

 

Establishing New Liquid Pipelines Programs

The addition of two new action programs for the liquid pipelines segment to The Partnership’s core mission shows the evolving nature of industry efforts to increasingly capture methane emissions mentioned by Sommers.

Midstream companies within The Partnership move oil and natural gas from the wellhead through transportation infrastructure to get fuels and feedstocks to market. Under the “Maintenance & Integrity” and “Energy Efficiencies” programs, liquid pipeline companies will implement best practices focused on pipelines and facilities within the transmission and storage segments, with the goal of reducing methane emissions.

Participants will report data on the methods used to reduce energy consumption, total energy used and number of incidents. This reporting will allow analysis that leads to improved performance.

The new programs make a total of eight action programs within The Partnership, which has steadily increased the scope of its efforts to reduce methane emissions across the supply chain.

 

Using the Latest Science to Continue Progress

The Partnership’s report showed success across the initiative’s other six programs. Critically important are reducing methane emissions from pneumatic controllers – control valves at natural gas and oil facilities that are often powered or actuated by natural gas. An independent analysis earlier this year said that reduced methane emissions from pneumatic controllers drove a decline in overall U.S. methane emissions from 2019-2021. Companies also are working to detect and repair equipment leaks.

The Partnership’s members reported:

• More than 61,700 additional gas-driven controllers replaced or removed from service in 2022. Between 2018 and 2022, more than 114,000 controllers were replaced or removed from service.
• In the leak detection program, more than 202 million component inspections were performed in 2022, finding a leak occurrence rate of 0.07%, or less than one component leaking in a thousand.
• Continued progress in the initiative’s manual liquids unloading program, its compressor program and its pipeline blowdown program.

Additionally, companies are using advanced flyover technology – aircraft carrying special detection equipment – to detect leaks from facilities. The Partnership helped expand participating companies’ knowledge of this technology and methane emissions sources by conducting flyovers of eight major production basins in 2021 and 2022.

 

 

The Partnership’s members also are working together, sharing information and technology, to help reduce methane emissions. In July, a two-day practical course at Colorado State University’s Methane Emission Technology Evaluation Center (METEC) provided optical gas imaging (OGI) training to help improve methodology and performance in OGI technology – using simulated leak detection and repair scenarios under the guidance of METEC experts.

 

 

Tim Vaughn, Colorado State research scientist:

“TEP’s initiative to better understand next generation sensing technologies will help validate and characterize the performance of new measurement techniques on gas compression engines. The interest and engagement of the wide range of operators that TEP brought together supported not only the study’s top-level goal, but also sparked inquiries on how to leverage new emission reduction opportunities from several subsidiary study observations.”

Jessica Keiser, Targa Resources senior vice president:

“The knowledge gained from our own detection surveys combined with collaborative initiatives like The Environmental Partnership’s aerial survey and compressor projects help inform our efforts to find and fix methane leaks. We believe that reducing methane leaks – and working with industry peers to identify and share solutions – is good business.”

 

Reducing Flare Volumes and Intensity

The Partnership launched its flare management program in 2020. Flaring, or burning natural gas rather than let it escape into the air, typically occurs when there is a lack of natural gas gathering and/or processing capacity during facility or gathering maintenance or during unplanned events for safety, such as to alleviate pressure. Flaring is also used when an oil well produces ancillary natural gas and there is no pipeline infrastructure available to transport it.

Since the program’s inception, participants have reported a lot of good work – advancing best practices to reduce flare volumes, promoting the beneficial use of associated natural gas, and improving flare reliability and efficiency.

This progress happened as producers worked to strengthen our energy security. In 2022, participating companies reported a 14% reduction in total flare volumes and a 2.4% reduction in flare intensity – flaring relative to natural gas production – as U.S. oil and natural gas production grew 5.6% and 4%, respectively.

 

 

Again, each of the headlines from The Partnership’s report reflect the best intentions and actions of oil and natural gas producers. They do their part to reduce methane emissions as they continue to supply Americans with energy and products that families and businesses count on for transportation, home comfort and countless consumer items.

Emily Hague, The Partnership’s director:

“Through innovative facility design, improvements in operational practices and procedures, advancements in detecting and measuring emissions and improved accuracy in data emissions reporting, we are achieving meaningful results, helping to ensure the continued production of affordable, reliable and cleaner energy for decades to come.”