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Measurements of methane emissions at natural gas production sites in the United States

  1. John H. Seinfeldi
  1. aCenter for Energy and Environmental Resources, University of Texas, Austin, TX 78758;
  2. bURS Corporation, Austin, TX 78729;
  3. cAerodyne Research, Inc., Billerica, MA 01821;
  4. dSchool of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287;
  5. eDepartment of Petroleum Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843-3116;
  6. fDepartment of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164;
  7. gDepartment of Petroleum Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO 80401;
  8. hDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-1740; and
  9. iDepartment of Chemical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125

  1. Edited by Susan L. Brantley, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, and approved August 19, 2013 (received for review March 20, 2013)

Significance

This work reports direct measurements of methane emissions at 190 onshore natural gas sites in the United States. The measurements indicate that well completion emissions are lower than previously estimated; the data also show emissions from pneumatic controllers and equipment leaks are higher than Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) national emission projections. Estimates of total emissions are similar to the most recent EPA national inventory of methane emissions from natural gas production. These measurements will help inform policymakers, researchers, and industry, providing information about some of the sources of methane emissions from the production of natural gas, and will better inform and advance national and international scientific and policy discussions with respect to natural gas development and use.

Abstract

Engineering estimates of methane emissions from natural gas production have led to varied projections of national emissions. This work reports direct measurements of methane emissions at 190 onshore natural gas sites in the United States (150 production sites, 27 well completion flowbacks, 9 well unloadings, and 4 workovers). For well completion flowbacks, which clear fractured wells of liquid to allow gas production, methane emissions ranged from 0.01 Mg to 17 Mg (mean = 1.7 Mg; 95% confidence bounds of 0.67–3.3 Mg), compared with an average of 81 Mg per event in the 2011 EPA national emission inventory from April 2013. Emission factors for pneumatic pumps and controllers as well as equipment leaks were both comparable to and higher than estimates in the national inventory. Overall, if emission factors from this work for completion flowbacks, equipment leaks, and pneumatic pumps and controllers are assumed to be representative of national populations and are used to estimate national emissions, total annual emissions from these source categories are calculated to be 957 Gg of methane (with sampling and measurement uncertainties estimated at ±200 Gg). The estimate for comparable source categories in the EPA national inventory is ∼1,200 Gg. Additional measurements of unloadings and workovers are needed to produce national emission estimates for these source categories. The 957 Gg in emissions for completion flowbacks, pneumatics, and equipment leaks, coupled with EPA national inventory estimates for other categories, leads to an estimated 2,300 Gg of methane emissions from natural gas production (0.42% of gross gas production).

Footnotes

  • ↵1To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: allen{at}che.utexas.edu.

  • Author contributions: D.T.A. and M.H. designed research; D.T.A., V.M.T., J.T., D.W.S., M.H., A.H., and S.C.H. performed research; C.E.K., M.P.F., A.D.H., B.K.L., J.M., R.F.S., and J.H.S. analyzed data; and D.T.A. wrote the paper.

  • Conflict of interest statement: J.M. holds a joint appointment with Barree & Associates and the Colorado School of Mines. She has also served as an advisor to Nexen in 2012. D.T.A. served as a consultant for the Eastern Research Group and ExxonMobil in 2012, and is the current chair of the Science Advisory Board for the EPA. J.H.S. has served as a consultant for Shell in 2012. D.T.A., M.H., C.E.K., and R.F.S. variously serve as members of scientific advisory panels for projects supported by Environmental Defense Fund and companies involved in the natural gas supply chain. These projects are led at Colorado State University (on natural gas gathering and processing), Washington State University (on local distribution of natural gas), and the University of West Virginia (on CNG fueling and use in heavy duty vehicles).

  • This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.

  • This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1304880110/-/DCSupplemental.

Freely available online through the PNAS open access option.

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