Methane emissions from US low production oil and natural gas well sites

• Published in: Nature communications 2022-04, Vol.13 (1), p.2085-10, Article 2085
• Main Authors: Omara, Mark, Zavala-Araiza, Daniel, Lyon, David R., Hmiel, Benjamin, Roberts, Katherine A., Hamburg, Steven P.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 704/172; 704/172/4081; Air Pollutants - analysis; Confidence intervals; Emissions; Gas production; Gas wells; Humanities and Social Sciences; Methane; Methane - analysis; multidisciplinary; Natural gas; Natural Gas - analysis; Oil; Oil and Gas Fields; Oil and gas production; Permian; Science; Science (multidisciplinary)
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-29709-3

Eighty percent of US oil and natural gas (O&G) production sites are low production well sites, with average site-level production ≤15 barrels of oil equivalent per day and producing only 6% of the nation’s O&G output in 2019. Here, we integrate national site-level O&G production data and previously reported site-level CH 4 measurement data ( n  = 240) and find that low production well sites are a disproportionately large source of US O&G well site CH 4 emissions, emitting more than 4 (95% confidence interval: 3—6) teragrams, 50% more than the total CH 4 emissions from the Permian Basin, one of the world’s largest O&G producing regions. We estimate low production well sites represent roughly half (37—75%) of all O&G well site CH 4 emissions, and a production-normalized CH 4 loss rate of more than 10%—a factor of 6—12 times higher than the mean CH 4 loss rate of 1.5% for all O&G well sites in the US. Our work suggests that achieving significant reductions in O&G CH 4 emissions will require mitigation of emissions from low production well sites. Only 6 percent of US oil and natural gas production output is from low production well sites. Here the authors show that total methane emissions from these low producing well sites in the US is substantial, representing about one-half of all production site methane emissions.