LongPath Technologies Secures DOE Loan to Expand Emissions Monitoring Network

LongPath Technologies has locked in a $162.4 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to help finance expansion of the company’s methane emissions monitoring network across U.S. oil and gas basins.

The financial support from the DOE’s Loan Programs Office (LPO), which announced the closing of the loan guarantee Oct. 23, came as LongPath works to construct and install more than 1,000 remote monitoring towers. The addition will boost the network’s coverage area to up to 24,000 sq miles in basins that include the Permian, Denver-Julesburg and Anadarko.

The U.S. has stepped up efforts to lower methane emissions as part of sustainability goals that include reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 and having a carbon pollution-free grid by 2030. Offering loans to companies seeking to advance technologies is among the ways the nation is moving toward fulfilling its ambitions.

“This financial backing empowers our customers to help flatten the methane emissions curve and ensure greater energy security by capturing more product in the pipeline, operating efficiently and partnering with communities,” LongPath Technologies CEO Ian Dickinson told Hart Energy in a statement. “We are now positioned to help operators meet sustainability and compliance goals faster than ever, despite shifting federal and state regulations, since LongPath technology is built to be forever compliant.”

The Colorado-based company’s methane emissions monitoring network consists of 50-ft-tall towers equipped with laser transceivers that send out laser beams traveling up to a mile and a half. Covering about 8 sq miles to 10 sq miles, each node is capable of monitoring greenhouse gas emissions for dozens of facilities such as production and compression facilities, delivering data in real-time via dashboards and customized alerts to field personnel.

The main target is methane, a known contributor to global warming and the main component of natural gas.

By helping companies identify and respond quickly to methane leaks, LongPath’s network is expected to prevent methane emissions equivalent to at least 6 million metric tons of CO2e annually, the LPO said in a news release. That is comparable to removing about 1.3 million gasoline-powered vehicles from roads.

The technology was developed with the University of Colorado and the National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST). Support also came from the DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E) and other DOE grants.

Jigar Shah, director of the LPO, called the loan one of the most prominent loans the office has closed, given its early roots with ARPA-E.

“We’re very excited about LongPath because obviously they were a research project supported by NIST and then came through ARPA-E and got a scale-up grant. Now, they really have found a commercial business model that is working,” Shah told Hart Energy.

He added, “methane is a much more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. So, having a way to really reduce methane leakage, I think, has been a big priority not only of the president, but also the Congress with the methane fee that they put into the Inflation Reduction Act.”

The methane tax requires oil and gas facilities emitting more than 25,000 metric tons (mt) of CO2-equivalent per year to pay hundreds of dollars for each metric ton of methane released into the atmosphere. The tax took effect this year, with first payments due on March 31, 2025.

Shah also called LongPath’s business model compelling. “It’s $1 of payments to LongPath, and then it’s about roughly another dollar for the oil and gas companies to actually to fix the methane leaks that they find,” he said. “And then they get $5 to $10 worth of additional product that they can sell. So, it’s like a great financial home run for the industry as well, which gives us great comfort.”

Next steps for LongPath include building its PathFinder program, an industry consortium of energy leaders and neighboring operators working to drive large-scale deployments.

“This collective effort lowers costs and increases monitoring coverage, delivering the highest quality, most scalable methane sensing network,” Dickinson said. “We’re continuing to onboard more operators, expanding our partnerships in all major U.S. basins to help reduce emissions at scale.”

Deployment of the five-year initiative is underway as LongPath aims to put its technology in every U.S. basin. The company is already monitoring hundreds of square miles of oil and gas infrastructure.

“Our goal is to have the entire network deployed by 2029, aligning with the loan’s timeline,” Dickinson said. “The LongPath network will continue to grow in phases, providing reliably accurate emissions monitoring as we roll out.”