An open-access methane intensity index, designed to provide regulatory and financial benchmarks, may offer a credible step for U.S. natural gas producers to verify their supplies.
The data inputs are used to derive regional methane emission estimates, according to MiQ and Highwood Emissions Management (HEM), which launched the index earlier this month. The index represents more than 300,000 top-down measurements from six Lower 48 oil and gas basins.
“A national emissions benchmark is critical for progressive action, particularly as we approach 2030 and other respective methane commitments,” said MiQ’s Lara Owens, director of Science and Technology. “Currently, there are no fit-for-purpose national emission estimates that can properly serve the certified gas market, and existing methodologies used are not reproducible, making the MiQ-Highwood Index a significant development as the market expands and regulators explore certification.”
‘Systemic Metrics’
The index was designed to include elements for “transparency, reproducibility and systematic metrics,” the sponsors said. As more top-down measurements are collected, U.S. regulators and data scientists could leverage the data to update baseline calculations.
The index estimates that the methane emissions intensity allocated to natural gas is 1% from the production sector and 2.2% for the entire natural gas supply chain. Methane leaks from gas production that exceed the 1% average could face more scrutiny, MiQ CEO Georges Tijbosch said.
“In just two years, the MiQ-certified gas market has grown to 20% of U.S. natural gas production, underscoring demand for lower methane-emitting natural gas,” said Tijbosch. “For the first time, the industry now has a much needed index to compare performance against, helping to address a readily achievable objective” for methane reductions.
HEM President Thomas Fox said U.S. gas consumers also could use the index to “understand their own carbon footprint relative to a national average. An index built on credible data,” he said, could accelerate adopting verified lower methane emissions gas.
Certified Gas Premiums?
Earlier this month, Appalachian natural gas producers Seneca Resources Co. LLC and Northeast Natural Energy agreed to provide access to more than 1 Bcf/d of certified natural gas via commodities trading platform CG Hub, a signal that selling lower methane-intense supply to overseas markets is advancing.
The U.S. oil and gas industry has been facing increased scrutiny by shareholders and stakeholders to reduce greenhouse emissions. In line with its ambitions to move to net-zero carbon, the White House last year launched a series of measures to reduce methane emissions, including a $1.15 billion program to plug orphan oil and gas wells and to enforce tighter emissions rules.
In related news, MethaneSAT LLC, an Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) subsidiary, has launched another tool to measure emissions from Lower 48 oil and gas basins.
The MethaneAir program would be used in jet aircraft to “locate, measure and track methane” from North American oil and gas operations and other sectors,” EDF noted.
“Cutting methane pollution is the fastest, most effective way there is to slow the rate of warming,” said MethaneSAT project lead Steven Hamburg. “Our instruments are helping to unlock that opportunity. Frequent high-precision measurements will give companies, regulators and the public actionable new insights to cut methane emissions faster.”
Initially, the flights would focus on oil and gas facilities in Colorado’s Denver-Julesburg Basin, the Haynesville Shale in East Texas and in the Permian Basin.
Operating from local airports, flights would be able to map and quantify emissions from target regions that encompass roughly 80% of U.S. onshore production, according to MethaneSAT.
Initial plans are for more than 50 flights this year. Data would be available later this summer and sited on a MethaneSAT data platform. MethaneAIR was developed jointly by MethaneSAT, EDF, Harvard University and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. The leased aircraft was adapted and operated by IO Aerospace.
