Leaks in natural gas system release potent greenhouse gas
The vast network of natural gas wells, pipes and processing facilities across the U.S. and Canada is “leaky” and needs a fix, according to a new study.
Government authorities are underestimating how much methane, a potent greenhouse gas, is escaping into the atmosphere from the natural gas system, says the report, entitled Methane Leaks from North American Natural Gas Systems, that was released Thursday by journal Science.
With the gas being championed in Canada and the U.S. as a “bridge fuel” to a “decarbonized” energy system, the authors say a concerted effort is needed to get a more accurate read on the emissions and plug the leaks.
Natural gas is predominately composed of methane, a molecule that is about 30 times better than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in Earth’s atmosphere.
The team of U.S. and Canadian researchers has found that official inventories “consistently underestimate” actual CH4 (methane) emissions.
“People who go out and actually measure methane pretty consistently find more emissions than we expect,” lead author Adam Brandt, an energy resources engineer at Stanford University said Thursday.
Atmospheric tests indicate U.S. methane emissions are about 50 per cent more than the estimates made by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “And that’s a moderate estimate,” said Brandt.
The study focuses mainly on the United States, but the researchers suggest the story is much the same in Canada.
“The same challenges apply here as well,” co-author Sarah Jordaan, a specialist in energy policy and politics at the University of Calgary, told Postmedia News. She said better monitoring of the natural gas system and other sources of methane in Canada is needed to better understand the source of the gas in the atmosphere.
“We need to focus on getting the measurements right, and from this we can reduce emissions,” she said.
The study, with co-authors from 14 universities and research agencies, reviewed 20 years of data collected in the U.S. and Canada by everything from instruments on aircraft to inspectors on the ground.
It suggests the excess methane in the atmosphere could be explained by gas leaking out of abandoned oil and gas wells, wetlands and other natural sources not included in government inventories.