Full Title: Waste Not, Want Not. The Complete Picture of Where Gas Leaks and How to Stop It
Author(s): Deborah Gordon
Publisher(s): Rocky Mountain Institute
Publication Date: March 11, 2025
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
Oil and gas is a leaky business. There are many reasons why gas leaks — sometimes intentionally, but also inadvertently. Still, there’s no excuse for discarding the very commodity a company aims to sell when a myriad of instruments to detect large and small leaks and known fixes exist to stop them.
Leaking gas wastes energy, imposes inefficiencies, endangers people and property, risks energy security, and unleashes deadly disasters by super heating the planet. RMI’s Oil Climate Index plus Gas estimates that one-half of the oil and gas industry’s greenhouse gas emissions from production are due to leaking gas. Sadly, explosions and fires from leaking gas are not uncommon — and 2023 was the deadliest year in two decades for gas incidents. Leaked gas contains carcinogenic and extremely toxic chemicals, like benzene, toluene, and hexane, that sicken humans and contaminate food and water supplies.
These risks are escalating as gas is increasingly trading through elongating supply chains that move resources from underground, through complex processes, and into more pipelines to fuel consumers. Growing volumes of gas are also being shipped across oceans to Europe and Asia, further extending supply chains. Gas can leak anywhere along its journey.