With the environmental benefits of LNG coming under increasing scrutiny, Cheniere Energy has struck a deal to quantify greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at natural gas supplier production wells, providing further transparency into the carbon footprint of its cargoes
In collaboration with five natural gas producers and several academic institutions, Texas-based Cheniere Energy – the largest LNG producer in the US – will implement quantification, monitoring, reporting and verification of greenhouse gas emissions performance at natural gas production sites. The co-operation with the natural gas producers is intended to improve the overall understanding of upstream GHG emissions and further the deployment of advanced monitoring technologies and protocols. It will also support Cheniere’s climate strategy initiatives, including the company’s plan to provide cargo emissions tags (CE Tags) to LNG customers beginning in 2022.
The producers participating in the project are Aethon Energy, Ascent Resources – Utica, EQT Corp, Indigo Natural Resources and Pioneer Natural Resources USA.
“Collaboration with our natural gas suppliers is a key component of Cheniere’s focus on quantifying and improving environmental performance,” said Cheniere president and chief executive Jack Fusco. “This collaboration reinforces our data-driven environmental transparency, supports our CE Tags and enhances our efforts with natural gas suppliers to monitor and verify emissions to maximise the climate benefits of Cheniere’s LNG.”
The initiative will use ground-based, drone, aerial and satellite monitoring technologies to establish baseline emissions levels, monitoring sites for CO2 and for both fugitive and vented methane emissions. The initiative will also verify emissions performance and identify opportunities to reduce emissions. The initial effort will cover production wells in the Haynesville, Marcellus, Permian and Utica basins that collectively produce about 360 million standard cubic feet per day (mscfd) of natural gas, as well as multiple tank batteries.
The project is being run by a subsidiary of Cheniere and is supported by researchers from the Payne Institute for Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines, Harrisburg University of Science and Technology, SLR International and other emissions monitoring technology providers, including Montrose Environmental, SeekOps, Bridger Photonics. and GHGSat.
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