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A new look at methane and nonmethane hydrocarbon emissions from oil and natural gas operations in the Colorado Denver-Julesburg Basin

  1. Gabrielle Pétron1,2,*,
  2. Anna Karion1,2,
  3. Colm Sweeney1,2,
  4. Benjamin R. Miller1,2,
  5. Stephen A. Montzka2,
  6. Gregory J. Frost1,2,
  7. Michael Trainer2,
  8. Pieter Tans2,
  9. Arlyn Andrews2,
  10. Jonathan Kofler1,2,
  11. Detlev Helmig3,
  12. Douglas Guenther1,2,
  13. Ed Dlugokencky2,
  14. Patricia Lang2,
  15. Tim Newberger1,2,
  16. Sonja Wolter1,2,
  17. Bradley Hall2,
  18. Paul Novelli2,
  19. Alan Brewer2,
  20. Stephen Conley4,
  21. Mike Hardesty1,
  22. Robert Banta2,
  23. Allen White2,
  24. David Noone1,5,
  25. Dan Wolfe1 and
  26. Russ Schnell2

Article first published online: 3 JUN 2014

DOI: 10.1002/2013JD021272

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.

Issue

Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres

Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres

Volume 119, Issue 11, pages 6836–6852, 16 June 2014


Additional Information

How to Cite

Pétron, G., et al. (2014), A new look at methane and nonmethane hydrocarbon emissions from oil and natural gas operations in the Colorado Denver-Julesburg Basin, J. Geophys. Res. Atmos., 119, 6836–6852, doi:10.1002/2013JD021272.

Author Information

  1. 1

    Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, USA

  2. 2

    NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, Boulder, Colorado, USA

  3. 3

    Institute for Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, USA

  4. 4

    Department of Land, Air and Water Resources, University of California, Davis, California, USA

  5. 5

    Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, USA

* Correspondence to: G. Pétron,
Gabrielle.Petron@noaa.gov

  1. The copyright line for this article was changed on 10 September 2014.

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 26 JUN 2014
  2. Article first published online: 3 JUN 2014
  3. Accepted manuscript online: 7 MAY 2014 01:00PM EST
  4. Manuscript Accepted: 30 APR 2014
  5. Manuscript Revised: 28 MAR 2014
  6. Manuscript Received: 28 NOV 2013

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Keywords:

  • Methane;
  • Volatile Organic Compounds;
  • Greenhouse Gas;
  • Emissions;
  • Aircraft Measurements;
  • Oil and Natural Gas

Abstract

Emissions of methane (CH4) from oil and natural gas (O&G) operations in the most densely drilled area of the Denver-Julesburg Basin in Weld County located in northeastern Colorado are estimated for 2 days in May 2012 using aircraft-based CH4 observations and planetary boundary layer height and ground-based wind profile measurements. Total top-down CH4 emission estimates are 25.8 ± 8.4 and 26.2 ± 10.7 t CH4/h for the 29 and 31 May flights, respectively. Using inventory data, we estimate the total emissions of CH4 from non-O&G gas-related sources at 7.1 ± 1.7 and 6.3 ± 1.0 t CH4/h for these 2 days. The difference in emissions is attributed to O&G sources in the study region, and their total emission is on average 19.3 ± 6.9 t/h, close to 3 times higher than an hourly emission estimate based on Environmental Protection Agency's Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program data for 2012. We derive top-down emissions estimates for propane, n-butane, i-pentane, n-pentane, and benzene from our total top-down CH4 emission estimate and the relative hydrocarbon abundances in aircraft-based discrete air samples. Emissions for these five nonmethane hydrocarbons alone total 25.4 ± 8.2 t/h. Assuming that these emissions are solely originating from O&G-related activities in the study region, our results show that the state inventory for total volatile organic compounds emitted by O&G activities is at least a factor of 2 too low for May 2012. Our top-down emission estimate of benzene emissions from O&G operations is 173 ± 64 kg/h, or 7 times larger than in the state inventory.

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