SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Submission Preview
Offshore oil and gas platforms release more methane than previously estimated
Story automatically generated by StoryBot Version 0.2.2 rel Testing.
Storybot ('Arthur T Knackerbracket') has been converted to Python3
Note: This is the complete story and will need further editing. It may also be covered
by Copyright and thus should be acknowledged and quoted rather than printed in its entirety.
FeedSource: [PhysOrg]
Time: 2020-04-13 19:36:46 UTC
Original URL: https://phys.org/news/2020-04-offshore-oil-gas-platforms-methane.html [phys.org] using UTF-8 encoding.
Title: Offshore oil and gas platforms release more methane than previously estimated
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- Entire Story Below --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Offshore oil and gas platforms release more methane than previously estimated
Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story [phys.org]:
Click here to sign in withor
Forget Password? [sciencex.com]
Learn more [sciencex.com]
share this!
163
35
Share
April 13, 2020
Offshore energy-producing platforms in U.S. waters of the Gulf of Mexico are emitting twice as much methane, a greenhouse gas, than previously thought, according to a new study from the University of Michigan.
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1449240174198-2'); });
Researchers conducted a first-of-its-kind pilot-study sampling air over offshore oil [phys.org] and gas platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. Their findings suggest the federal government's calculations are too low.
U-M's research found that, for the full U.S. Gulf of Mexico, oil and gas facilities emit approximately one-half a teragram of methane each year, comparable with large emitting oil and gas basins like the Four Corners region in the southwest U.S. The effective loss rate of produced gas is roughly 2.9%, similar to large onshore basins primarily focused on oil, and significantly higher than current inventory estimates.
Offshore harvesting accounts for roughly one-third of the oil and gas produced worldwide, and these facilities both vent and leak methane. Until now, only a handful of measurements of offshore platforms have been made, and no aircraft studies of methane emissions in normal operation had been conducted. Each year the EPA issues its U.S. Greenhouse Gas Inventory, but its numbers for offshore emissions are not produced via direct sampling.
The study, published in Environmental Science and Technology, identified three reasons for the discrepancy between EPA estimates and their findings:
Eric Kort, a U-M associate professor of climate and space sciences and engineering, said EPA officials are already making adjustments to correct their count of offshore platforms operating in the Gulf of Mexico. But emissions estimates, particularly for shallow waters, still need adjustments.
"We have known onshore oil and gas production often emits more methane than inventoried. With this study we show that this is also the case for offshore production, and that these discrepancies are large," Kort said. "By starting to identify and quantify the problem, with a particular focus on larger shallow water facilities, we can work towards finding optimal mitigation solutions."
In addition, those shallow-water discrepancies warrant further investigation, Kort added, since deep water facilities may be sending some of the oil and gas they produce via pipeline to others located closer to shore.
U-M's team conducted its sampling in 2018 with Scientific Aviation using a small research plane with enough room for a pilot and passenger in the two front seats, as well as scientific gear where there normally would be two rear two seats. Tubes along the wings of the plane drew in air that was pumped to the equipment for analysis of the amount of methane included as well as wind speed. Circling a single platform [phys.org] gives researchers a better idea of how much methane [phys.org] that single source is emitting.
In addition to 12 individual facilities, the flights also covered larger geographical areas. Flying downwind from clusters of 5 to 70 oil and gas facilities, and taking similar measurements, researchers can evaluate how well inventory estimates compare with large numbers of platforms.
"By measuring emissions from both individual facilities as well as many dozens of facilities we can compare results, evaluate different inventories, and generate a more statistically robust estimate of total emissions from the U.S. Gulf of Mexico," said Alan Gorchov Negron, lead author on the study and a Ph.D. candidate in climate sciences at U-M.
As a pilot study, Kort said the research is promising but has gaps. Greater statistical sampling and identification of the cause of high emissions can guide mitigation and improve reported emissions. To further the work and fill in these gaps, new aerial sampling is in the works funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The project, titled Flaring and Fossil Fuels: Uncovering Emissions & Losses (F³UEL), will mean more flights later over the next three years over the Gulf of Mexico, Alaska and California.
Explore further
Feedback to editors
8 hours ago
8 hours ago
8 hours ago
9 hours ago
Apr 10, 2020
3 hours ago
3 hours ago
3 hours ago
3 hours ago
3 hours ago
3 hours ago
3 hours ago
3 hours ago
5 hours ago
7 hours ago
6 hours ago
Apr 07, 2020
Apr 01, 2020
Apr 01, 2020
Apr 01, 2020
Apr 01, 2020
More from Earth Sciences [physicsforums.com]
Jan 28, 2020
Nov 13, 2019
Aug 15, 2019
Mar 31, 2020
Nov 07, 2019
Mar 26, 2020
3 hours ago
3 hours ago
7 hours ago
7 hours ago
8 hours ago
Apr 09, 2020
Your feedback will go directly to Science X editors.
Thank you for taking your time to send in your valued opinion to Science X editors.
You can be assured our editors closely monitor every feedback sent and will take appropriate actions. Your opinions are important to us.
We do not guarantee individual replies due to extremely high volume of correspondence.
Your email address is used only to let the recipient know who sent the email. Neither your address nor the recipient's address will be used for any other purpose.
The information you enter will appear in your e-mail message and is not retained by Phys.org in any form.
Get weekly and/or daily updates delivered to your inbox.
You can unsubscribe at any time and we'll never share your details to third parties.
More information [sciencex.com]
Privacy policy [sciencex.com]
Medical Xpress covers all medical research advances and health news
Tech Xplore covers the latest engineering, electronics and technology advances
Science X Network offers the most comprehensive sci-tech news coverage on the web
This site uses cookies to assist with navigation, analyse your use of our services, and provide content from third parties.
By using our site, you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Privacy Policy [sciencex.com]
and Terms of Use [sciencex.com].
-- submitted from IRC
