The difference between official estimates and the measured results suggests the province’s energy industry could have to double its planned methane emission cuts if Alberta is to meet its promised 45 per cent reduction.
“A lot of eyes are going to be really wide when they see the comparison,” said Carleton University’s Matt Johnson, author of the study published in Environmental Science and Technology. “If we thought it was bad, it’s worse.”
Currently, industry is only required to report how much methane is released during flaring and venting. So-called fugitive emissions from equipment such as leaky valves have only been estimated.
Johnson’s study is the first to use aerial flyovers of oil and gas fields to actually measure released methane, a greenhouse gas about 30 times more powerful than carbon dioxide.
The planes made seven passes over a region of conventional oil and gas around Red Deer in central Alberta and four passes over the heavy oil centre of Lloydminster. The surveys were done over 10 days last fall.
The planes flew over thousands of wells in both areas to reduce the odds that results were distorted by unusually high releases from a few sites, said Johnson.
Researchers were able to distinguish between industrial and agricultural methane emissions by tracking trace amounts of ethane — a gas released by oil and gas wells, but not by cattle.
“That allows us to attribute it,” Johnson said.
The total measurements were compared with methane releases reported by industry and methane emissions estimated in the most recent National Pollutant Release Inventory.
more
‘If we thought it was bad, it’s worse:’ Alberta badly underestimates methane emissions, new research shows | Calgary Herald
“A lot of eyes are going to be really wide when they see the comparison,” said Carleton University’s Matt Johnson, author of the study published in Environmental Science and Technology. “If we thought it was bad, it’s worse.”
Currently, industry is only required to report how much methane is released during flaring and venting. So-called fugitive emissions from equipment such as leaky valves have only been estimated.
Johnson’s study is the first to use aerial flyovers of oil and gas fields to actually measure released methane, a greenhouse gas about 30 times more powerful than carbon dioxide.
The planes made seven passes over a region of conventional oil and gas around Red Deer in central Alberta and four passes over the heavy oil centre of Lloydminster. The surveys were done over 10 days last fall.
The planes flew over thousands of wells in both areas to reduce the odds that results were distorted by unusually high releases from a few sites, said Johnson.
Researchers were able to distinguish between industrial and agricultural methane emissions by tracking trace amounts of ethane — a gas released by oil and gas wells, but not by cattle.
“That allows us to attribute it,” Johnson said.
The total measurements were compared with methane releases reported by industry and methane emissions estimated in the most recent National Pollutant Release Inventory.
more
‘If we thought it was bad, it’s worse:’ Alberta badly underestimates methane emissions, new research shows | Calgary Herald
