The climate-damaging gas methane is still being released at English onshore oil sites, a year after researchers revealed the problem.
DrillOrDrop reported in October 2021 that “significant emissions of methane” had been recorded at key onshore sites.
The emissions were detected by the Clean Air Task Force (CATF), an international climate NGO. It used infrared imaging cameras to document the emissions on visits to sites across seven counties.
The organisation recently returned to sites in the Weald basin in southern England and recorded continuing emissions at oil production sites in Hampshire and West Sussex.
James Turito, of CATF, told BBC News today:
“This is absolutely avoidable. The technologies exist to capture the gas that is being vented and emitted from the various equipment that we see on this site.”
Methane often comes to the surface when oil is extracted.
At some onshore sites, the Environment Agency allows methane to be released into the atmosphere (known as cold venting). The gas may also leak from vents, valves or seals, or be fully, or partially, burned in a flare.
Methane from all sources accounts for at least a quarter of global warming since pre-industrial times.
It has more than 80 times the heat-trapping power of carbon dioxide in the short-term, so reducing methane is critical to slowing climate change.
Last year (2021), the UK signed the Global Methane Pledge, an international initiative to cut methane emissions. The launch at the COP26 climate talks in Glasgow targeted reductions in emissions from the oil and gas industry. Signatories committed to reducing total methane emissions by 30% by the end of the decade, compared with 2020 levels.
Also in 2021, the International Energy Agency said cuts to methane emissions from oil and gas sites were vital to limiting global warming to 1.5C.
Most methane emissions from the UK oil and gas industry are from offshore fields.
But official data from the North Sea Transition Authority (NTSA) shows that 1,352m3 of methane gas was vented onshore from a total of 18 onshore oil sites between September 2021-August 2022 (the most recent 12 months for which figures are available).
Data on the volume of vented gas from onshore fields has been published by the NSTA for the past six years.
In that time, vented gas was recorded at 26 onshore oil fields. The largest volume was from the Kimmeridge site in Dorset, at 3,532m3. It was followed by Horndean in Hampshire (1,295m3). According to the figures, the Stockbridge field, also in Hampshire, has vented 322m3 since 2016, while Singleton in West Sussex has vented 190m3.
The industry group, UK Onshore Oil and Gas (UKOOG), says on its website that venting and flaring of gas is “only used when absolutely necessary”. It says:
“The oil and gas industry takes great care to avoid flaring and venting natural gas wherever possible.
“Not only are these harmful to the environment, but natural gas is valuable both economically and as an energy resource. Therefore, it is in the best interests of operators to be as efficient as possible so that they can deliver as much natural gas as possible to their customers”.
But Charles McAllister, of UKOOG, told BBC News:
“Some facilities are quite old. Repurposing these facilities to capture what the Environment Agency would call de minimis volumes of methane – very small amounts – is not economically viable.”
Today the Green Alliance estimated that 750,000 homes could be heated this winter if the UK oil and gas industry (both onshore and offshore) stopped venting and flaring.
Also today, the Environment Agency published a comparison of the best methods to detect methane emissions and onshore oil and gas sites.
The study concluded:
“We found that there is little published data on the accuracy of different measurement methods. To address this, controlled releases should be used to understand the method detection limits and accuracy.
“The application of the selected methods should be standardised and implemented by qualified and experienced staff.”
Categories: Research, slider
Tagged as: Clean Air Task Force, climate-damaging, detect, emissions, emit, Environment Agency, gas, global warming, Hampshire, Horndean, James Turito, Kimmeridge, methane, North Sea, North Sea Transition Authority, NTSA, offshore, oil, onshore, release, researchers, UK Onshore OIl and Gas, UKOOG, vent, Weald Basin, West Sussex
How ridiculous UKOOG sound, defending the indefensible. The technologies exist to reduce these emissions and to only allow flaring in an absolute emergency. All greenhouse gasses contribute to climate change and methane is particularly potent. As the limiting to a 1.5C global temperature increase looks almost out of reach and we are ever closer to climate breakdown, these companies should not be permitted to operate unless they meet the most stringent of standards.
“not economically viable” for the oil and gas industry to help save lives threatened by the adverse consequences of climate change. No surprise there then!
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