Comparative Assessment of Life Cycle GHG Emissions from European Natural Gas Supply Chains

Abstract

Recent studies reporting on the GHG emissions from NG chains where gas is consumed in Europe provide wide ranging estimates. A detailed life cycle GHG emissions estimation of two Norwegian natural gas production and European consumption chains has been carried out and validated with detailed operational data. CO2 and CH4 emissions were estimated at unit process level using engineering calculations, material balance, and high-resolution emissions factors resulting in GHG emissions footprints between 2.26-7.05 gCO2 eq/MJ NG delivered to European markets. The estimated CH4 emissions for the chains as a fraction of production was 0.01-0.04%. Important differences in GHG footprint are observed annually and also between neighbouring fields. Nevertheless, results indicate that the GHG footprint of both the Norwegian LNG and pipeline gas imported to Europe is well below recently reported EU averages.