Methane emissions are far lower than previous studies suggested, says NOAA
Despite increased natural gas production in the United States, total U.S. methane emissions have not risen over the past decade, according to a study from the Earth System Research Laboratory at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The research found that there was no increase in total methane emissions in the United States from 2006 to 2015. Despite a small increase in emissions related to oil and gas operations, those emissions are still 10 times lower than previous studies suggested.
“We analyzed a decade’s worth of data and … we do not find a statistically significant trend in the U.S. for total methane emissions,” lead author Xin Land said in a news release.
From 2006 to 2015, natural gas production in the United States increased more than 46 percent due to greater use of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing technology.
The American Gas Association’s Clean Energy Analyst Gina DeFrancesco says the picture of emissions from natural gas systems is continuously evolving and becoming more refined.
Although the rapid growth of shale oil and gas production has raised questions about the amount of methane emissions released from such activities, the new research suggests that some previous analyses may have used data and methods that led to a major overestimation of the oil and gas methane emissions trend, she said in a post on AGA’s True Blue Natural Gas blog.
AGA continues to support efforts to produce meaningful data on natural gas operations, DeFrancesco noted.
“Improved science and systematic data collection are essential to inform the public debate about the effect of natural gas use on the climate and to support recognition of the benefits of using natural gas to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” she said. “This NOAA study is one more step in the continual improvement in measurement and analytical methods that helps shed light on questions of methane emissions from oil and natural gas operations.”