Robert Fares reports that the academic journal Environmental Science & Technology published an issue featuring 10 new peer-reviewed articles investigating the rate of methane leakage from the Barnett Shale region, where the practice of hydraulic fracturing to extract natural gas first took off in the U.S. The studies found that the amount of natural gas leaking into the atmosphere during drilling operations is likely about 1.5 times what the U.S. had previously estimated, with most of the emissions likely caused by just a handful of problem drilling operations. The findings indicate that more regulations and controls on methane leakage will most likely be required to realize the potential climate benefits of burning natural gas versus coal for electricity generation.
Even in small quantities, methane leakage is an important part of the climate change equation for natural gas because methane (the primary component of natural gas) is a far more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Different greenhouse gases are ranked according to their Global Warming Potential (GWP), which describes their warming impact as a multiple of the impact caused by carbon dioxide, the most prevalent greenhouse gas. By definition, carbon dioxide has a GWP equal to 1. Methane has an estimated GWP of 28 to 36, indicating that one kilogram of methane released to the atmosphere will cause the same amount of warming as about 28 to 36 kilograms of carbon dioxide. Thus, controlling methane leakage in the natural gas supply chain is a vital part of reducing the overall greenhouse gas emissions associated with natural gas, even if the actual volume of methane is small.
No mention was made of leakage from gas production well systems...
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