Making flaring more efficient, could reduce climate-warming emissions by the same amount as pulling nearly three million cars off the road, according to a new study published in ScienceMagazine:
But that assumption had not been rigorously tested in the real world, says Plant,"so that's why we went to study it."In 2020 and 2021, she and other researchers took more than 12 flights to test the emissions produced by flaring across the three major U.S. oil and gas producing areas: the Bakken Formation in North Dakota and Montana; and the Permian Basin and Eagle Ford Shale in Texas and New Mexico.
They found that the flaring in these locations only converted about 91% of methane released from the ground into other compounds. Some of that was due to a small percentage of flares that weren't lit and were therefore releasing methane directly into the atmosphere. The rest was due to inefficient flaring, although the study does not investigate why some flares release excess methane.
But getting to the bottom of that, and making flaring more efficient, could reduce climate-warming emissions by the same amount as pulling nearly three million cars off the road, according to the"It isn't shocking to see these results," says Rob Jackson, professor of Earth System Science at Stanford University. He also studies the climate impacts of methane but was not involved in the new study.
"Member companies are prioritizing emissions reductions and are taking action," said Cole Ramsey, American Petroleum Institute's vice president of upstream policy, in a statement.
These changes come as a growing body of work targets methane, which is responsible for at least 25% of current global warming, according to the
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Fixing inefficient oil field flaring could drastically reduce methane emissions | EngadgetScientists have discovered that flaring during oil extraction lets more methane into the atmosphere than thought..
Read more »
Gas flares are leaking five times as much methane than previously thoughtThe oil and gas industry claims they burn off 98 percent of escaping natural gas through flares. A new study says that estimate was more than a little optimistic.
Read more »
US Gas Flaring Releases Five Times More Methane Than Previously Thought\u0022This study adds to the growing body of research that tells us that the oil and gas industry has a flaring problem,\u0022 said Jon Goldstein of EDF, which conducted related research on the practice.
Read more »
Flaring allows more methane into the atmosphere than we thoughtOil and gas producers rely on flaring to limit the venting of natural gas from their facilities, but new research led by the University of Michigan shows that in the real world, this practice is far less effective than estimated—releasing five times more methane in the U.S. than previously thought.
Read more »
Acidification of Arctic Happening Up to 4 Times Faster Than Other OceansThe research followed reports that the Arctic is warming nearly four times faster than the Earth as a whole.
Read more »
Pumpkin spice is as popular as ever on social media, study findsNew research shows that pumpkin spice is as popular as ever on social media!
Read more »