Results from the Alberta Methane Measurement Campaigns: New Insights into Oil and Gas Methane Mitigation Policy

Addressing methane emissions from the oil and gas industry is an integral part of Canada's climate policy. These policies typically take the form of periodic leak detection and repair (LDAR) surveys to find and fix fugitive methane emissions. While many technologies and platforms to detect methane have been recently developed, most jurisdictions in Canada and the US require the use of optical gas imaging (OGI) systems in LDAR surveys. Even as recent measurement campaigns have shed light on the nature of oil and gas methane emissions, two key questions remain unanswered - Are LDAR programs effective at reducing methane emissions? and Can new technologies provide more cost-effective leak detection compared to existing approaches?

In this work, we present preliminary results addressing these challenges from two major field measurement campaigns in Alberta, Canada.

In the first campaign - called the Fugitive Emissions Management Program Effectiveness Assessment - we track emissions across ~200 oil and gas producing sites under different LDAR survey frequencies. This study helped establish the rate at which methane emissions grow, the effectiveness of repair processes, and the impact of survey frequency on emissions mitigation efficacy. These insights will help regulatory agencies adopt methane policies that are most effective at reducing fugitive emissions.

In the second campaign - called the Alberta Methane Field Challenge - we describe results from the first-ever large-scale field trials of 8 stationary (fixed sensors) and mobile approaches (trucks, drones, and planes) to methane leak detection at producing oil and gas sites. In this study, we run a coordinated campaign to simultaneously measure emissions using both regulatory OGI-based ground surveys and new technologies to enable direct equivalency determination. The field experience and results from this campaign provide critical insights into the advantages and challenges of using new technology as part of leak detection protocols.