Continuous weekly monitoring of methane emissions from the Permian Basin by inversion of TROPOMI satellite observations
<p>We quantify weekly methane emissions at 0.25<span class="inline-formula"><sup>∘</sup></span> <span class="inline-formula">×</span> 0.3125<span class="inline-formula"><sup>∘</sup></span> (<span class...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Copernicus Publications
2023-07-01
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| Series: | Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics |
| Online Access: | https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/23/7503/2023/acp-23-7503-2023.pdf |
| Summary: | <p>We quantify weekly methane emissions at 0.25<span class="inline-formula"><sup>∘</sup></span> <span class="inline-formula">×</span> 0.3125<span class="inline-formula"><sup>∘</sup></span> (<span class="inline-formula">≈25</span> <span class="inline-formula">×</span> 25 km<span class="inline-formula"><sup>2</sup></span>) resolution
from the Permian Basin, the largest oil production basin in the US, by inverse analysis of satellite observations from the TROPOspheric
Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) from May 2018 to October 2020. The mean oil
and gas emission from the region (<span class="inline-formula">±</span> standard deviation of weekly
estimates) was 3.7 <span class="inline-formula">±</span> 0.9 Tg a<span class="inline-formula"><sup>−1</sup></span>, higher than previous TROPOMI
inversion estimates that may have used biased prior emissions or background
assumptions. We find strong week-to-week variability in emissions
superimposed on longer-term trends, and these are consistent with
independent inferences of temporal emission variability from tower,
aircraft, and multispectral satellite data. New well development and natural
gas spot price were significant drivers of variability in emissions over our
study period but the concurrent 50 % increase in oil and gas production
was not. The methane intensity (methane emitted per unit of methane gas
produced) averaged 4.6 % <span class="inline-formula">±</span> 1.3 % and steadily decreased from
5 %–6 % in 2018 to 3 %–4 % in 2020. While the decreasing trend suggests
improvement in operator practices during the study period, methane emissions
from the Permian Basin remained high, with methane intensity an order of
magnitude above the industry target of <span class="inline-formula"><i><</i>0.2</span> %. Our success in
using TROPOMI satellite observations for weekly estimates of emissions from
a major oil production basin shows promise for application to near-real-time
monitoring in support of climate change mitigation efforts.</p> |
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| ISSN: | 1680-7316 1680-7324 |