Full Title: LEANING IN: MOVING AHEAD OF REGULATIONS FOR NATURAL GAS EMISSIONS
Author(s): Morgan D. Bazilian, Jim Crompton, and Jordy Lee
Publisher(s): The Payne Institute for Public Policy
Publication Date: March 19, 2020
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
The natural gas industry is facing a number of headwinds. These challenges include decarbonization, electrification, and digitization. More recent pressure stems from low and volatile prices, supply gluts, heavy debt loads, and a nascent oil “war”. One of the key areas challenging the gas industry is methane and VOC emissions. The IEA reports that methane emissions from the oil and gas sector reached close to 80 million tons in 2017, or nearly 6% of global energy sector greenhouse gas emissions. To manage emissions and ensure the success of the industry, there are several emerging technologies for quantifying and identifying leaks. Those range from on-site leak detection and repair cameras and deployable drones, all the way up to satellite imaging.
These digital solutions seek to not only address the challenge of managing methane emissions and air quality at drilling and production facilities, but also the prevention of leaks during natural gas distribution and regasification. How is the concept of this “digital canopy” achieved? The first element to address is transparency.