Conventional and periodic survey-type methods of monitoring methane emissions from oil and gas facilities (whether that’s handhelds, drones, or satellites) are like asking the fire brigade to occasionally drive past your house and check if it’s on fire. Continuous monitoring is more like the smoke detector on the ceiling; it’s always there, just in case. Unlike a mere smoke detector, however, modern continuous methane monitors also quantify, pinpoint, and interpret, so you can find the fire and put it out effectively. Arguably, we should think of methane emissions much more as fires we need to put out—urgently.
According to the International Energy Agency’s methane tracker, satellite-observed (i.e., very large) leaks are estimated to have emitted around 3 Mt of methane from oil and gas operations in 2022. To repeat, these are emission events so big they jump out in view from space.
Three megatons. That’s the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions equivalent of around 18 million gasoline-powered cars driven for a year. And we all know that even this “equivalence” figure in and of itself is flawed as methane unleashes its highly potent, highly concentrated warming effect across a shorter time horizon than CO2.
Methane emitted today has its biggest impact across a crucial decade in the energy transition: the next one.
While the world is painstakingly changing how whole societies move about and heat homes, one large, avoidable methane leak can undo it all. The largest super-emitter event, for example, was detected in 2022 and resulted in methane emissions of 152,500 metric tons —equivalent to nearly a million passenger cars (when using the same math as above). Governments, regulators, and the public are growing more aware of the impacts of methane emissions, thereby increasing the pressure to act as a result.
At the same time, the economics of methane action are shifting. Instead of doing methane monitoring the old way (the occasional drive-by of the fire brigade) and simply moving forward in step with regulatory requirements, energy companies should leapfrog the old tech and go all in on comprehensive, continuous monitoring at scale.
And if that’s not convincing enough, here are four other very good reasons as to why.
1. Continuous methane monitoring is possible, at cost (or less)
Most methane emissions from the oil and gas industry can be prevented using tech that is available today. Half can be eliminated at a profit thanks to the revenue generated by capturing and selling instead of venting, flaring, or losing the gas to fugitive emissions.
Continuous automated surveillance tech is one key pillar in this, alongside technology that replaces routine flaring and venting. It has evolved fast over the last two years and is ready for rapid rollout. It now ensures leaks of all sizes are detected fast, so they can be fixed efficiently. Instead of only sampling for reporting and detecting to fix, it also pinpoints and quantifies for targeted, deep emissions reductions.
2. It pays to be early when it comes to methane reporting
Avoidable direct methane emissions from our industry are becoming unacceptable very fast. Today’s methane reporting for compliance is only just moving from estimates and calculations to survey-based measurement. The latter comes at a cost, without the benefits of avoiding leaks at scale or retaining the gas for sale.
Leapfrogging this phase to scale up continuous monitoring early means faster abatement, a reduced risk of reputation-damaging large emitter events, and extra revenue that neutralizes the cost of monitoring. It also offers an opportunity to get to know and fine tune your tech setup before tighter regulations kick in. You’ll earn while you learn.
3. Methane data is performance data
Oil and gas is a data-driven industry, always has been. What’s changed over the last decade is the availability of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technology that can gather real-time data from every part of the process, bring it together in one place, and run meaningful analysis on it to continuously improve operations.
Comprehensive methane surveillance adds another rich stream of data to this picture. It offers insights into the state of facilities and, in combination with other data types, becomes performance data that enables ever more efficient, low-emission production. It’s data that improves performance in more than one way.
4. Continuous methane monitoring teaches us to move faster
Methane monitoring is the first big, new tech rollout of the energy transition. But it won’t be the last. For energy companies to successfully navigate their own decarbonization journeys and move to new energy, they will need to adopt, roll out, and learn from new tech systems at an ever-faster pace. So, this is an exceptionally useful learning curve.
The urgency of the methane emissions problem forces us to scale our tech at unprecedented speed. It already has tech providers thinking about their products differently:
- How can we de-risk adoption?
- How can we commercialize faster?
- How can we design hardware for immediate scale-up?
- What new business models may we need to facilitate uptake?
In turn, operators who adopt and adapt, rather than wait it out, will be rewarded in organizational learning and agility.
So, what’s next? Or first?
To come back to my opening shot, methane emissions are fires that urgently need to be put out, phased out, designed out. It’s what the public, governments, and shareholders demand from our industry. There is no upside to doing this slowly. If we dispatch resources to a leak, it should be to fix it for good, to learn from it, and to understand the difference it makes. When rolled out quickly, continuous methane monitoring enables just that. It not only fixes the leak we’re detecting, it catches them all. It’s also a safe bet. There are many uncertainties that accompany the energy transition. Whether or not we can fix the oil and gas industry’s direct methane emissions problem is not one of them. We can.
