Southwestern Energy to certify Appalachian gas as responsibly-sourced

US shale producer Southwestern Energy said June 23 it was joining the Project Canary initiative to certify its gas production from the Appalachia basin as responsibly-sourced.

Southwestern said it reached an agreement to obtain certification through the Project Canary standard on stewardship and emissions monitoring across its Appalachia shale portfolio.

Southwestern holds about 786,000 net acres across the basin. All of the production from its acreage in Pennsylvania is natural gas, as is 65% of its holdings in Ohio and West Virginia.

Southwestern said it had a long track record of responsibility in its shale acreage, certifying its first wells in 2017 and completing six separate sales agreements for its responsibly-sourced gas (RSG) since then.

“The differentiated market for RSG is expanding quickly and independent, third-party certification ensures that the demands of global end-users, with heightened sustainability demands, will be met and exceeded through the energy transition, where RSG will play a central role,” Chris Romer, the co-founder of Project Canary, said.

This marks the second such agreement in the Appalachia shale this month. US-based Range Resources added its name to the growing number of energy companies teaming up with Project Canary, which is working through a pilot programme to help the companies involved with their efforts to voluntarily reduce methane emissions from the natural gas sector to 1% or less within the next four years. Project Canary, through the programme, will certify production from Range as RSG.

Southwestern said it started installing emissions monitoring devices across its Appalachia portfolio. Certification is scheduled to begin in July.