Appalachian Methane Initiative Announces 2023 Pilot Program Progress and Metrics; Looks Ahead to 2024
- Among gas facility equipment, condensate tanks and compressors exhibit the highest emissions factors.
- Non-oil and gas sources are the largest contributors to total methane emissions, with coal mines and coal mine vents comprising the majority of large release events.
- Actual operational data is critical to ensuring accurate measurement-informed inventories.
2024 Campaign to Significantly Expand Monitoring Area
CNX Resources, Ascent Resources, MPLX LP, and Seneca Resources Sign on to Coalition for 2024
PITTSBURGH, March 19, 2024--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Appalachian Methane Initiative ("AMI"), founded by Chesapeake Energy Corporation, EQT Corporation, and Equitrans Midstream Corporation in January 2023, today announced that it has successfully completed its 2023 pilot methane emissions monitoring program.
AMI is a proactive, first-of-its-kind basin-wide initiative designed to further enhance methane emissions monitoring and, ultimately, facilitate additional methane emissions reductions in the Appalachian Basin ("Basin"). AMI engaged Bridger Photonics and ChampionX for methane surveys, SLR International for strategic consulting, and the Energy Emissions Modeling and Data Lab ("EEMDL") – a consortium at University of Texas at Austin that also includes Colorado State University and the Colorado School of Mines – to lead the scientific analysis.
AMI conducted more than 1,700 surveys of gas facilities and 60 surveys of non-gas facilities across the Appalachian Basin in its inaugural year. By leveraging coordinated aerial surveys alongside on-site monitoring technology and advanced reporting frameworks, the pilot program monitored approximately 1,100 square miles of the Basin, including gas production facilities representing approximately 5.8 billion cubic feet per day (bcf/d) of capacity in 2023.
2023 Key Findings from the Pilot Region:
- For on-pad gas operations, condensate tanks and compressors were among the largest sources. Pinpointing the largest sources in gas operations allows for targeted, large-scale emissions reductions efforts throughout the Basin. For each AMI-specific emissions source, the AMI companies conducted causal analysis investigations. That causal analysis data can then be leveraged in emissions reductions efforts.
- Non-oil and gas operations consistently contribute to the majority of as-measured emissions in the AMI pilot region: 76% in Q2, 53% in Q3, and 73% in Q4.
- The largest single contributor to total emissions is associated with coal mine operations – either coal mine vents or direct emissions from the mine. Individual emitters from coal mine vents exhibited emissions over 5,000 kg/h, orders of magnitude higher than the single highest observed emissions rate from any oil and gas sources.
- Aerial measurements must be supplemented with timely and actual operational data to ensure accurate measurement-informed inventories. Many emissions events captured in this study had significant temporal variability, particularly in the oil and gas segment, and, without the use of operational information, the risk of inaccurate emissions estimates (either underestimation or overestimation) is high.
Given the success of the 2023 program, AMI expanded its membership to include Ascent Resources, CNX Resources, MPLX LP, and Seneca Resources. This expansion will facilitate a substantial increase in the 2024 campaign footprint, with quarterly surveys already underway. AMI’s members are aligned with and share the coalition’s strategic environmental goals in the Appalachian Basin.
AMI’s 2024 Plans:
- The 2024 campaign is expected to monitor more than 20,000 square miles of the Appalachian Basin, including gas production facilities representing 31.5 bcf/d of production capacity – encompassing roughly 90% of the daily production within the Basin, a nearly sixfold increase in volume compared with 2023.
- Monitoring of oil and gas sites will increase from approximately 600 to more than 6,000.
- Non-oil and gas sites, such as coal mines/vents and landfills, will increase from 21 to 181.
"The Appalachian Methane Initiative is a state-of-the-art example of a successful cooperative and transparent approach to addressing methane emissions from the oil and gas sector. By ensuring that data are collected, analyzed, and reported by an independent academic institution, AMI seeks to model the level of transparency and scientific rigor necessary to compete in a global market looking for low emission natural gas," said Arvind Ravikumar, a faculty member of the Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin and an EEMDL Co-Director. "An independent measurement, monitoring, and reporting framework forms the bedrock of global efforts to transparently and rapidly reduce methane emissions. Together with the ability to use upcoming satellite technologies for emissions verification, AMI demonstrates a scalable pathway to comprehensively address fugitive methane emissions within the next decade."
About the Appalachian Methane Initiative
The Appalachian Methane Initiative is a coalition of leading U.S. natural gas companies engaged with independent monitoring providers, technical consultants, and top-tier universities. Through an aligned strategy to methane monitoring and a cooperative approach to emissions reduction best practices, the coalition aims to further enhance methane emissions monitoring and reductions throughout the Appalachian Basin. For more information and to access the 2023 report, please contact member companies directly.
Cautionary Statements
This news release contains certain forward-looking statements. Statements that do not relate strictly to historical or current facts are forward-looking. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, forward-looking statements contained in this news release include expectations regarding the Appalachian Methane Initiative (AMI), including the potential initiatives thereof and timing and impacts of such initiatives. AMI has based these forward-looking statements on current expectations and assumptions about future events, taking into account all information currently known by AMI. While AMI considers these expectations and assumptions to be reasonable, they are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, regulatory, and other risks and uncertainties, many of which are difficult to predict and beyond AMI’s control.
Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which such statement is made, and except as required by law, AMI does not intend to correct or update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.
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Contacts
Chesapeake Energy Corporation
Brooke Coe
Manager - Communications
media@chk.com
EQT Corporation
Courtney Loper
Head of Government Relations and Public Affairs
courtney.loper@eqt.com
Equitrans Midstream Corporation
Natalie Cox
Vice President, Communications and Corporate Affairs
ncox@equitransmidstream.com
Ascent Resources
Chris Benton
VP – Finance & Investor Relations
chris.benton@ascentresources.com
CNX Resources
Brian Aiello
Vice President – External Relations
BrianAiello@cnx.com
MPLX LP
Jamal Kheiry
Communications Manager
jtkheiry@marathonpetroleum.com
Seneca Resources Company, LLC
Rob Boulware
Director, Stakeholder Relations
BoulwareR@srcx.com
