A team of researchers from the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin and environmental testing firm URS reported that a small subset of natural gas wells are responsible for the majority of methane emissions from two major sources - liquid unloadings and pneumatic controller equipment - at natural gas production sites.
With natural gas production in the United States expected to continue to increase during the next few decades, there is a need for a better understanding of methane emissions during natural gas production. The study team believes this research will help to provide a clearer picture of methane emissions from natural gas production sites.
The UT Austin-led field study closely examined two major sources of methane emissions - liquid unloadings and pneumatic controller equipment - at well pad sites across the United States. Researchers found that 19 per cent of the pneumatic devices accounted for 95 per cent of the emissions from pneumatic devices, and 20 per cent of the wells with unloading emissions that vent to the atmosphere accounted for 65 per cent to 83 per cent of those emissions.
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