WGC2018: ExxonMobil Unit Reveals Methane Reductions

WASHINGTON, DC - XTO Energy, the unconventional natural gas subsidiary of global giant ExxonMobil, said June 25 it has reduced its methane emissions worldwide by 9% in the last two years.

In a special panel presentation ahead of the World Gas Conference, which begins here June 26, XTO president Sarah Ortwein said close to 4% of XTO's total reductions over the two year period, amounting to more than 7,200 metric tons (mt) of methane, were achieved through its voluntary reduction program and other operational improvements. The reductions amounted to about 2% of ExxonMobil’s global methane emissions, which the super-major hopes to reduce by 15% by 2020.

In 2017, XTO implemented a methane management program to measure and mitigate emissions from its operations. The program, Ortwein said, includes a commitment to phase out high-bleed pneumatic devices over three years, extensive personnel training, research and facility design improvements for new operations.

“Over the past nine months, we’ve gained significant insight from the data collected through our methane management program,” Ortwein said. “We are building on what we have learned to make continued progress in reducing emissions and identifying areas for further improvement.”

So far, XTO has managed to phase out about 66% of its existing high-bleed pneumatic devices in its US operations and has deployed low-emission design technologies in new developments, primarily in the Permian Basin in west Texas and New Mexico. These technologies include improved emission control designs on storage tanks and the installation of instrument air packages, which use compressed air instead of natural gas to drive pneumatic controllers.

Despite the efforts being made by ExxonMobil, many of them in conjunction with Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), Fatih Birol, executive director of the Paris-based International Energy Agency, much more needs to be done to reduce global methane emissions – and much of it can be done at very little cost to the industry and with significant climate change consequences.

“Our analysis shows that globally, 76mn metric tons of methane are emitted from oil and gas operations each year, (with) most of these emissions coming from Russia, from the former Soviet Union countries and from North America,” he said at the ExxonMobil/EDF panel presentation. “This is the equivalent of about 1.7% of global gas production.”

Nearly half of those emissions, Birol said, can be mitigated using existing technologies and at virtually no net cost to the industry.

“If we can achieve this 50% reduction at no net cost, the climate change benefits are equal to shutting down two thirds of all coal power generation in Asia.”