Satellite monitoring of fugitive methane emissions from oil and gas facilities in Australia

Abstract

Since 2016, GHGSat has been operating the world’s first and only satellite specifically designed to monitor methane emissions from industrial facilities around the world. The lessons learned through the success of this demonstration satellite have been incorporated into the company’s next two satellites, the first of which was originally scheduled to launch in September 2019 but was delayed as a result of a rocket failure. The satellite’s technology is ideally suited to the oil and gas industry, particularly unconventional developments in which a high density of facilities can be present. This paper introduces the technology briefly and discusses the predictive analytics applications being developed to augment the efficacy of the satellites in detecting methane emissions. An example of successful application of the predictive analytics engine to detect a methane leak in the Delaware Basin in New Mexico is presented. Parallels are drawn between shale basins in the US and the Surat Basin in Australia, highlighting the applicability of the technology for the oil and gas industry in Australia.