French oil major TotalEnergies has announced deployment of an innovative technology developed by Qnergy, to significantly reduce methane emissions related to its operations on the Barnett gas field in the U.S., the companies said in a joint release on Oct. 12.

The solution proposed by Qnergy uses a technology allowing to convert methane powered instrumentation to compressed air powered instrumentation, eliminating the release of methane to the atmosphere during the process.

During a successful pilot project at the Barnett site in March 2021, Qnergy’s technology proved to be reliable, simple to install and easy to operate, allowing to eliminate up to 98% of the methane venting emissions related to instruments using natural gas.

Following successful additional tests, TotalEnergies has decided to install this new technology by deploying 100 units on the Barnett field in 2021 and 2022. The deployment of 300 additional units throughout the field will reduce methane venting emissions from pneumatic devices by approximately 7,000 tons a year by end 2024.

From now on, new developments on the Barnett field and across the company will be designed without instruments using natural gas.

“To fully play its role in the energy transition, notably as a substitute for coal, the integrated natural gas chain must limit its methane emissions as much as possible," said Carole Le Gall, senior vice president of sustainability and climate at TotalEnergies.

"We have successfully demonstrated the effectiveness of Qnergy’s technology on the Barnett field. By immediately deploying this technology on our US onshore operations, we are actively demonstrating our commitment to reducing our own methane emissions by 20% between 2020 and 2025."

Ory Zik, CEO of Qnergy, commented, “We are thrilled to support TotalEnergies’ global effort to eliminate methane emissions from the natural gas supply chain. This 100-unit deployment is one of the largest projects in the pneumatic devices sector. It marks the beginning of a new scale of emission mitigation across this sector.”

TotalEnergies has cut its emissions by close to 50% since 2010, through actions focused on different sources such as flaring, venting and fugitive emissions and by complying with stringent design standards for new projects to ensure that methane emissions are close to zero. 

TotalEnergies’ achieved to lower the methane emissions intensity of its operated gas facilities to below 0.1% in 2020. The company has now set an objective of a further 20% reduction of absolute methane emissions from its operated oil and gas assets in 2025 compared to 2020.

In November 2020, TotalEnergies signed onto a second phase of the United Nations Environment Program’s Oil and Gas Methane Partnership, supporting a broader, more ambitious reporting framework extended to cover the entire gas value chain and non-operated assets. The Company is also a signatory of the Methane Guiding Principles.

TotalEnergies is a founding member of the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative, a $1 billion climate fund that has also invested in Qnergy.

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