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Assessment of Methane and VOC Emissions on Select Upstream Oil and Gas Production Operations Using Remote Measurements, Interim Report on Recent Survey Studies
Citation:
Thoma, E. Assessment of Methane and VOC Emissions on Select Upstream Oil and Gas Production Operations Using Remote Measurements, Interim Report on Recent Survey Studies. Annual Conference of the Air & Waste Management Association - June 19-22, 2012, San Antonio, TX, June 18 - 22, 2012.
Impact/Purpose:
This product is a presentation (slides) to be given at the 105th Annual Conference of the Air & Waste Management Association - June 19-22, 2012, in San Antonio, Texas. This presetation will sumarize work to develop the GMAP-REQ-DA remote mearuemnt approach for oil and gas pproduction pad applications and present data from survey studies in the context of existing infromation. This prestaion was also given at the Air & Waste Management Association Conference on Air Quality Measurement Methods and Technology, April 24-26, 2012, Durham, NC (STICS for Tracking # ORD-000432)
Description:
Environmentally responsible development of oil and gas assets in the United States is facilitated by advancement of sector-specific air pollution emission measurement and modeling tools. Emissions from upstream oil and gas production are complex in nature due to the variety of equipment designs, differences in maintenance states, and variable product composition. Since component-level emission measurements require site access and are somewhat burdensome, cost-effective approaches to locate and assess emissions using off-site observations are attractive from both a source understanding and routine inspection perspective. A new mobile remote assessment approach was developed, tested and is described herein. The approach was utilized on five upstream natural gas field studies in CO, TX and WY in 2010 and 2011. Preliminary results show median CH4 emission rates of 0.21 g/s, 0.43 g/s and 0.79 g/s and volatile organic compound emission rates of 0.16 g/s, 0.04 g/s and 0.30 g/s for areas studied in CO, TX, and WY respectively. The distributions were positive skew (mean > 2*median) with the presence of high values in part ascribed to maintenance-related issues such as open thief hatches and failed pressure relief valves that can be mitigated. The difference in volatile organic compound emissions in select areas of TX compared to CO and WY is primarily due to the dry gas nature of the former. A review of acquired summa canister results substantiates this point. The positive and negative attributes and use limitations of the new mobile remote assessment approach are described and next steps in method development are discussed.