Methane Leak Technology Bolsters Oil Industry’s ESG Efforts

In late October 2015, residents of Porter Ranch, about 24 miles northwest of Los Angeles, began complaining of nosebleeds, dizziness and respiratory problems. The culprit was a methane leak at the Aliso Canyon Natural Gas Storage Facility that would turn out to be the largest in U.S. history.

Not until early 2016 would the leaks, caused by groundwater corrosion of the 50-year-old well’s metal lining, be plugged. In the meantime, about 100,000 metric tons of methane would leak from the facility and people in more than 8,300 households were forced to evacuate.

“Had we, at that time, had our product we could have identified [the leak] at least two days before the residents started complaining,” Andrew Gould, former CEO of Schlumberger, said during a recent webinar hosted by the Center for Energy Research at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.

Gould is advisory board chairman of Kayrros, a data analytics company that has developed a system to analyze methane leaks detected by satellite imagery. The data comes from the European Space Agency’s Copernicus Sentinel 5-P satellite, launched in October 2017.

“This satellite gives us the ability to look at large concentrations, or clusters, of leaks pretty much around the world,” Gould said. “It is slightly weather constrained, but not very much.”

The 20-year warming potential of methane is 85 times greater than CO_2, he said, but measuring methane emissions is more difficult than measuring those of CO₂. Methane is invisible and must be measured directly, and it can also spread over a wide range.

With oil and gas companies frequently characterized as villains by climate change activists, some are nervous about working with emissions detection specialists. Kayrros sees itself as a partner to the industry.

“Our aim is not to name and shame,” Gould said. “Our aim is to help the industry be able to identify where they have specific leaks to allow them to move swiftly. Currently, we are in advanced negotiations with two of the supermajors who wish to actually have their leaks monitored on a regular basis in their operations going forward.”

About 60% of global methane emissions derive from human activity, including oil and gas, landfills and agriculture, according to the International Energy Agency. Other sources are wetlands, permafrost and wildfires.

In the oil and gas space, emissions are not confined to the wellhead. Kayrros has identified numerous gas pipeline leaks, including a major leak in late 2019 from Russian gas giant Gazprom’s Yamal Pipeline, which carries natural gas from Siberia to Europe.

“Gazprom, of course, is extremely nervous about the fact that the EU, European Community, its biggest customer, is looking at imposing an import tax for natural gas linked to the emissions that they can attribute to it,” Gould said. “So they’re very keen to send the message that they’re doing their best to control these leaks.”

A system that senses emissions from space is best suited for large leaks. It is possible to identify a leak in a particular well in, say, the Permian Basin, but it would take a great deal of time and effort to accomplish that, given the concentration of wells in the region.

Where the system excels in identifying major emissions culprits. (The world’s worst, Gould said, is Turkmenistan.)

“It is striking, but we’re picking up detections in countries that typically have a fairly low level of regulations,” Kayrros founder Antoine Halff said. “In countries where there are very high standards in regulations or operating practices, we’re not picking up a lot of emissions. A case in point would be Saudi Arabia. We’re not detecting a lot of emissions in Saudi Arabia. Actually, it’s kind of a benchmark in terms of good regulations, and this is because of the policy that’s been in the Kingdom to capture the gas for power generation.”

The technology has drawn the attention of various sides of the methane issue, including environmentalists, regulators, investors and oil and gas companies looking to improve their ESG performance.

“If you’re a very large operator, very publicly visible, you know that in the future, that ESG performance is going to be a critical part of your public profile and your regulatory profile,” Gould said.

The recent rollbacks of methane emission rules have split the industry, with small companies favoring the action and large operators seeking to keep the old rules in place. Kayrros takes the middle ground.

In a recent op-ed in the Houston Chronicle, Gould argued that existing EPA regulations could use some adjusting because they focus too much on small leaks and not enough about preventing large leaks.

“I’m probably in favor of methane regulations,” he said. “I actually think it’s a good time to rethink them in function of the evolutions in the technology that allow us to detect much larger leaks. The small leaks need to be dealt with but it’s more important in the short term to deal with the large leaks.”

The dichotomy in the industry approach stems from whether methane emissions are from leaks or flaring. Leaks, Gould said, are relatively cheap to fix. Flaring, however, requires export infrastructure or other use for the gas that creates a much different economic proposition for the operators.

Generally, large operators are either extremely receptive or are considering what the Kayrros technology might do for them. Their assumption is that their ESG profile will be important in the future in terms of public perception and investor interest. They also assume that any EPA regulations that disappear now will ultimately reappear.

“I think the issue is with small operators who don’t have access to infrastructure and who need to flare the gas in order to export the oil,” Gould said. “I would describe their reaction so far as a deafening silence. OK, but you know, I think that the current state of the industry will sort that out, anyway.”