Assessment of methane emissions from the U.S. oil and gas supply chain
Abstract
Methane emissions from the U.S. oil and natural gas supply chain were estimated by using ground-based, facility-scale measurements and validated with aircraft observations in areas accounting for ~30% of U.S. gas production. When scaled up nationally, our facility-based estimate of 2015 supply chain emissions is 13 ± 2 teragrams per year, equivalent to 2.3% of gross U.S. gas production. This value is ~60% higher than the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency inventory estimate, likely because existing inventory methods miss emissions released during abnormal operating conditions. Methane emissions of this magnitude, per unit of natural gas consumed, produce radiative forcing over a 20-year time horizon comparable to the CO2 from natural gas combustion. Substantial emission reductions are feasible through rapid detection of the root causes of high emissions and deployment of less failure-prone systems.
Authors
RAMÓN A. ALVAREZ HTTPS://ORCID.ORG/0000-0003-3241-0111 , DANIEL ZAVALA-ARAIZA HTTPS://ORCID.ORG/0000-0002-8394-5725, DAVID R. LYON, DAVID T. ALLEN HTTPS://ORCID.ORG/0000-0001-6646-8755, ZACHARY R. BARKLEY HTTPS://ORCID.ORG/0000-0002-1731-4685, ADAM R. BRANDT HTTPS://ORCID.ORG/0000-0002-2528-1473, KENNETH J. DAVIS, SCOTT C. HERNDON HTTPS://ORCID.ORG/0000-0002-7348-8225, DANIEL J. JACOB, ANNA KARION HTTPS://ORCID.ORG/0000-0002-6304-3513, ERIC A. KORT HTTPS://ORCID.ORG/0000-0003-4940-7541, BRIAN K. LAMB HTTPS://ORCID.ORG/0000-0001-7641-5227, THOMAS LAUVAUX, JOANNES D. MAASAKKERS, ANTHONY J. MARCHESE HTTPS://ORCID.ORG/0000-0001-6320-2687, MARK OMARA HTTPS://ORCID.ORG/0000-0002-8933-1927, STEPHEN W. PACALA HTTPS://ORCID.ORG/0000-0003-4450-6532, JEFF PEISCHL HTTPS://ORCID.ORG/0000-0002-9320-7101, ALLEN L. ROBINSON HTTPS://ORCID.ORG/0000-0002-1819-083X, PAUL B. SHEPSON, COLM SWEENEY HTTPS://ORCID.ORG/0000-0002-4517-0797, AMY TOWNSEND-SMALL HTTPS://ORCID.ORG/0000-0002-6107-0833, STEVEN C. WOFSY, AND STEVEN P. HAMBURG