Dangerous greenhouse gas is declining in drilling basins – Deseret News

Methane, a potent greenhouse gas characterized as a major contributor to climate change, is both naturally occurring and the result of human activity.

It has long been the target of federal regulatory agencies seeking to control it and calling on environmental groups to also reduce it because of its harmful effects on health and the environment.

But there is some good news when it comes to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s greenhouse gas reporting program, as reported by Energy Inowned and reiterated by the Utah Petroleum Association.

“Methane emissions from the nation’s major oil and gas producing basins have fallen 44 percent since 2011,” the article said.

He adds that what is even more astonishing is that the drop in greenhouse gas emissions has occurred “even as the country has managed to break records in energy production – the United States product more crude oil than any country at any time in the last six consecutive years.

The Energy Information Administration reports that this trend has continued for six years.

“The 2023 U.S. crude oil production record is unlikely to be broken in any other country in the near term, as no other country has reached a production capacity of 13 million barrels per day. Saudi state-owned Saudi Aramco recently abandoned plans to increase production capacity to 13.0 million barrels per day by 2027.”

The large basins studied

The data covered the seven major oil and gas producing basins in the United States: Williston, San Juan, Permian, Anadarko, Gulf Coast, Arkoma and Appalachia. She did not look at the Uinta Basin in eastern Utah because it is not in the same category as the others in terms of production.

The EIA indicates that three basins saw their methane emissions drop by more than half between 2019 and 2023: the Williston basin (which covers part of Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota), the Appalachian basin (spanning a long swath of nine eastern states, including Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia) and the Arkoma Basin (covering parts of Arkansas and Oklahoma). Emissions from the Arkoma Basin fell the most drastically, an 87% drop.

In the Permian Basin, which stretches from west Texas to eastern New Mexico, total methane emissions fell 32% between 2019 and 2023, or by 2.4 million tons. The Texans’ annual natural gas reports also showed a continued decline in Permian methane intensity over those years – from 0.29% in 2019 to 0.12% in 2022.

Permian production increased 51%, from nearly seven million barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2019 to 10.6 million barrels in 2023. What’s more, these production numbers will only increase.

Why this decrease?

Rikki Hrenko-Browning, president of the Utah Petroleum Association, said it’s a combination of factors.

“I think it’s a mix that operators have adopted — a mix of both voluntary and new regulations that are leading to this reduction in methane emissions,” she said.

New rules adopted by the Harris-Biden administration help reduce operator emissions.

“Operators, particularly here in Utah and the Basin, have taken many initiatives to tackle this problem and have made many changes and investments in infrastructure and operational practices that also significantly reduce emissions” , she said. .

She added that the American Petroleum Institute Environmental Partnership has voluntarily committed to producers reducing their emissions through regular ventilation and flaring.

At the local level, the Utah Petroleum Association has its “Latch the Hat” program in which there is a voluntary commitment but which it has described as a firm commitment to reducing emissions that go beyond federal regulatory requirements.

Franque Bains, director of the Sierra Club of Utah, acknowledged the decline but said more needs to be done.

“One of the fastest and most cost-effective ways to combat the climate crisis is to reduce methane, a powerful greenhouse gas 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide. The oil and gas sector is one of the nation’s largest sources of methane, and through a combination of technological innovation and federal protections, we have seen a notable decline in methane emissions from oil and gas infrastructure over the last few years. she said. “However, there is still much to be done for our country to achieve its greenhouse gas reduction goals and get on the path to climate stabilization. That’s why the Biden administration last year finalized the toughest methane standards ever for the oil and gas sector and approved legislation requiring companies to pay for their waste emissions.