Methane emissions from US low production oil and natural gas well sites.

ABSTRACT: Eighty percent of US oil and natural gas (O&G) production sites are low production well sites, with average site-level production ≤15 barrels of oil equivalent per day and producing only 6% of the nation's O&G output in 2019. Here, we integrate national site-level O&G production data and previously reported site-level CH₄ measurement data (n = 240) and find that low production well sites are a disproportionately large source of US O&G well site CH₄ emissions, emitting more than 4 (95% confidence interval: 3-6) teragrams, 50% more than the total CH₄ emissions from the Permian Basin, one of the world's largest O&G producing regions. We estimate low production well sites represent roughly half (37-75%) of all O&G well site CH₄ emissions, and a produ

SUBMITTER: Omara M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9019036 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature