Page 10 - EurOil Week 35 2021

EurOil ENERGY TRANSITION EurOil

Methane plumes spotted

in Romania

ROMANIA AN infrared camera has identified more than that will require operators to detect, quantify
70 methane plumes coming from pipelines, oil- and address their emissions. It is due to publish a
Romania is one of fields and storage units in Romania, Bloomberg proposal on the rules later this year.
Europe’s biggest gas reported on August 25. Critics argue that gas companies are cur-
producers, meaning The oil and gas industry has faced height- rently under-reporting their emissions, and the
that claims of ened scrutiny recently over its emissions of research by CATF, if corroborated, would indi-
widespread methane methane (CH4), a far more potential green- cate this.
emissions could have house gas than CO2. And recent innovations “It’s literally under the radar,” BloombergNEF
serious implciations for in detection technologies have made it easier analyst Antoine Vagneur-Jones commented. “If
its climate credentials. to locate plumes. Geoanalytics firm Kayrros the EU wants to push ahead with any kind of
has recently exposed large methane plumes in strong policy around this, then it also needs to
Russia and in Kazakhstan that had not been make an effort to clamp down on methane leak-
reported by operators. age in its own backyard.”
Non-profit Clean Air Task Force (CATF) esti- Kayrros estimates that there are very few
mates it has found more than 70 leaks at Roma- so-called “super emitters”, or methane plumes
nian oil and gas infrastructure using a $118,000 with emission rates of over 5 tonnes per hour,
camera. in Europe. It has identified them only around a
“It felt like every well in Romania is leaking,” dozen times in the continent, while it has found
James Turitto at CATF, who is travelling across more than 2,000 globally. These large plumes
Europe attempting to track fugitive emissions, account for 10-15% of total methane emissions
told Bloomberg. “Tanks were rusted out. It from the oil and gas industry, according to Kay-
was impossible to document all the methane rros, which uses data from the European Space
emissions.” Agency’s Sentinel-1 satellite.
Romania is one of Europe’s biggest gas pro- The International Energy Agency (IEA) and
ducers, meaning that claims of widespread others estimate that a large share or even the
methane emissions could have serious impli- majority of methane emissions from the oil and
cations for its climate credentials. Reports of gas industry could be avoided at no net cost. But
plumes from oil and gas infrastructure come this claim has been contested by certain voices
as the European Commission drafts new rules within the industry. ™

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 35 02•September•2021