New research suggest that flaring natural gas from oil and gas wells isn’t actually doing all that great a job reducing methane emissions. In fact, according to a study released Thursday in the journal Science, “emissions are five times higher than previously thought, due to both unlit flares and inefficient combustion.” Researchers with the University of Michigan and CarbonMapper/University of Arizona took air samples from the Permian, Eagle Ford, and Bakken basins—areas responsible for around 80% of U.S. flaring. Using unlit flare prevalence surveys, the team discovered that when flares are properly used, they destroy only 91.1% of methane as opposed to the industry and government estimate of 98%.
A difference of around 7% may seem minimal, but those numbers quickly add up when it comes to damaging emissions like methane, which is more than 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide. “This represents a five-fold increase in methane emissions above present assumptions and totals 4-10% of total U.S. oil and gas methane emissions,” researchers wrote, adding that “this highlights a previously under-appreciated methane source and mitigation opportunity.” Researchers also stressed the need for accountability to fully understand the issue in order to effectively address it.
“If measures were taken to ensure that US flares operated at 98% efficiency and remained lit, as current accounting assumes, this would be equivalent to removing 2.9 million cars from the road each year these mitigation measures were in place,” the study noted. When researchers refer to unlit flares, they’re signifying the practice of hydrocarbons directly being vented into the atmosphere absent a flame component for whatever reason. An unlit flare could be venting because the flame itself was never turned on or the flame was extinguished. This venting practice is significantly more harmful than flaring itself. Inefficient combustion refers to fuel being only partially burned.
Mitigation in itself sounds great until you take into consideration the many ways that oil and gas wells continue to pollute surrounding areas even without flaring. It would be nice to reduce emissions from the practice, but we’re past the point of a reduction being adequate as opposed to an outright elimination of emissions in order to meet net-zero goals. A study like this is just another reason to accelerate the transition to renewables.
A difference of around 7% may seem minimal, but those numbers quickly add up when it comes to damaging emissions like methane, which is more than 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide. “This represents a five-fold increase in methane emissions above present assumptions and totals 4-10% of total U.S. oil and gas methane emissions,” researchers wrote, adding that “this highlights a previously under-appreciated methane source and mitigation opportunity.” Researchers also stressed the need for accountability to fully understand the issue in order to effectively address it.
“If measures were taken to ensure that US flares operated at 98% efficiency and remained lit, as current accounting assumes, this would be equivalent to removing 2.9 million cars from the road each year these mitigation measures were in place,” the study noted. When researchers refer to unlit flares, they’re signifying the practice of hydrocarbons directly being vented into the atmosphere absent a flame component for whatever reason. An unlit flare could be venting because the flame itself was never turned on or the flame was extinguished. This venting practice is significantly more harmful than flaring itself. Inefficient combustion refers to fuel being only partially burned.
Mitigation in itself sounds great until you take into consideration the many ways that oil and gas wells continue to pollute surrounding areas even without flaring. It would be nice to reduce emissions from the practice, but we’re past the point of a reduction being adequate as opposed to an outright elimination of emissions in order to meet net-zero goals. A study like this is just another reason to accelerate the transition to renewables.