Reconciling divergent estimates of oil and gas methane emissions

Zavala-Araiza, Daniel; Lyon, David R.; Alvarez, Ramón A.; Davis, Kenneth J.; Harriss, Robert; Herndon, Scott C.; Karion, Anna; Kort, Eric Adam; Lamb, Brian K.; Lan, Xin; Marchese, Anthony J.; Pacala, Stephen W.; Robinson, Allen L.; Shepson, Paul B.; Sweeney, Colm; Talbot, Robert; Townsend-Small, Amy; Yacovitch, Tara I.; Zimmerle, Daniel J.; Hamburg, Steven P.

doi:10.1073/pnas.1522126112

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Reconciling divergent estimates of oil and gas methane emissions

2015
By Zavala-Araiza, Daniel ; Lyon, David R. ; Alvarez, Ramón A. ; ...
Source: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2015 Dec 22; 112(51): 15597-15602.

[PDF-906.05 KB]

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Details:

Journal Title:

Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the United States
Personal Author:

Zavala-Araiza, Daniel ; Lyon, David R. ; Alvarez, Ramón A. ; Davis, Kenneth J. ; Harriss, Robert ; ... More +

Zavala-Araiza, Daniel ; Lyon, David R. ; Alvarez, Ramón A. ; Davis, Kenneth J. ; Harriss, Robert ; Herndon, Scott C. ; Karion, Anna ; Kort, Eric Adam ; Lamb, Brian K. ; Lan, Xin ; Marchese, Anthony J. ; Pacala, Stephen W. ; Robinson, Allen L. ; Shepson, Paul B. ; Sweeney, Colm ; Talbot, Robert ; Townsend-Small, Amy ; Yacovitch, Tara I. ; Zimmerle, Daniel J. ; Hamburg, Steven P. Less -
NOAA Program & Office:

OAR (Oceanic and Atmospheric Research) ; GMD (Global Monitoring Division)

OAR (Oceanic and Atmospheric Research) ; GMD (Global Monitoring Division) Less -
Description:

Published estimates of methane emissions from atmospheric data (top-down approaches) exceed those from source-based inventories (bottom-up approaches), leading to conflicting claims about the climate implications of fuel switching from coal or petroleum to natural gas. Based on data from a coordinated campaign in the Barnett Shale oil and gas-producing region of Texas, we find that top-down and bottom-up estimates of both total and fossil methane emissions agree within statistical confidence intervals (relative differences are 10% for fossil methane and 0.1% for total methane). We reduced uncertainty in top-down estimates by using repeated mass balance measurements, as well as ethane as a fingerprint for source attribution. Similarly, our bottom-up estimate incorporates a more complete count of facilities than past inventories, which omitted a significant number of major sources, and more effectively accounts for the influence of large emission sources using a statistical estimator that integrates observations from multiple ground-based measurement datasets. Two percent of oil and gas facilities in the Barnett accounts for half of methane emissions at any given time, and high-emitting facilities appear to be spatiotemporally variable. Measured oil and gas methane emissions are 90% larger than estimates based on the US Environmental Protection Agency's Greenhouse Gas Inventory and correspond to 1.5% of natural gas production. This rate of methane loss increases the 20-y climate impacts of natural gas consumed in the region by roughly 50%.
Keywords:

[+]

Emissions Methane
Source:

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2015 Dec 22; 112(51): 15597-15602.
DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1522126112
Pubmed Central ID:

PMC4697433
Document Type:

Journal Article
Rights Information:

Other
Compliance:

PMC
Main Document Checksum:

[+]

urn:sha256:b78ec35131f66ee9f8ef71047fb27d7ea46aea04ee4534bb1c12e25c7cbfa008
Download URL:

https://staging-noaa.cdc.gov/view/noaa/24386/noaa_24386_DS1.pdf
File Type:

	Dataset available	xlsm
	Appendix (via publisher)	pdf

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