Natural Gas Production Research Articles

Potential Underestimate in Reported Bottom-up Methane Emissions from Oil and Gas Operations in the Delaware Basin

Methane is a greenhouse gas and identified as a key driver of near-term climate change. Bottom-up approaches estimate annual methane loss from US natural gas production and transport at 6 Tg, but recent studies suggest this may be an underestimate. To investigate this possibility, an equipment-based emissions inventory, using EPA emission factors, was developed to calculate methane emissions from oil and gas operations in the Delaware basin, USA. Emission factors and activity data were then updated using contemporary and region-specific measurement data. The original inventory estimated emissions at 315 Gg CH4 y−1 (gas production-normalized rate of 0.6% loss), while the updated inventory estimated emissions of 1500 Gg CH4 y−1 (2.8% loss). The largest changes resulted from large fugitive emissions from oil production (+430 Gg CH4 y−1), updating maintenance activity emissions (+214 Gg CH4 y−1), considering flaring inefficiency (+174 Gg CH4 y−1), and the inclusion of associated gas venting (+136 Gg CH4 y−1). This study suggests that a systematic underestimate probably exists in current bottom-up inventories and identifies sources currently missing or may be incorrect. We also strongly recommend that emission factors should be validated through direct comparison against measurement campaigns that include long-tail distributions typical of oil and gas activities.

Impact of investments on labour productivity in the chemical and petrochemical industry of the Republic of Kazakhstan

Relevance. Currently, the petrochemical and chemical industries are one of the main areas in the international economy. That is why it is important to choose effective alternative networks by promoting investments in factories to achieve certain indicators in the field of labour. The relevance of this topic is conditioned by the fact that labour productivity in the modern environment plays a crucial role in the activities of various industries. Purpose. The purpose of the study is to assess the correlation of investment and labour productivity in the chemical and petrochemical industry of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Methodology. The study used several methods of scientific research, specifically: correlation and regression analysis. Results. As a result, it was possible to explore the areas of activity responsible for the development of the chemical and petrochemical industry, namely: the development and production of oil, associated (petroleum) and natural gas, the production of chemical and petrochemical products, the production of coke and refined petroleum products, the development of rubber and plastic products. This allowed establishing the level of impact of investments on labour productivity of each of the above-mentioned sub-sectors. In addition, statistical data were investigated, based on which indicators were established reflecting the features of interaction between such components as investment, industrial development, and the improvement of professional personnel. The factors that qualitatively affect the efficiency of external market conditions for corporations are disclosed. Conclusions. The research shows that investments in chemical products, coke, and refined petroleum are more effective than those in crude oil and natural gas production. The practical value of the study is revealed in the possibility of using the results when developing development plans for specific chemical and petrochemical enterprises in the Republic of Kazakhstan, by attracting a specific type of investment. Keywords: energy efficiency; capital; infrastructure; productivity factors; innovation

Natural Gas Matters: LNG and India’s Quest for Clean Energy

India, the world’s most populous country, is the world’s third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases (GHGs). Despite employing several energy sources, it still relies heavily on coal, its primary energy source. Given India’s swiftly rising energy demand, this challenges meeting emission reduction targets. In recent years, India has significantly increased investments in renewables like solar and hydrogen. While commendable, these initiatives alone cannot meet the country’s expanding energy demands. In the short term, India must rely on both domestic and imported fossil fuels, with natural gas being the most environmentally friendly option. In this context, this paper attempts to forecast energy consumption, natural gas production, and consumption in India until 2050, using both univariate and multivariate forecasting methods. For multivariate forecasting, we have assumed two alternative possibilities for GDP growth: the business-as-usual and the high-growth scenarios. Each of our forecasts indicates a notable shortfall in the projected production of natural gas compared to the expected demand, implying our results are robust. Our model predicts that nearly 30–50 percent of India’s natural gas consumption will be met by imports, mainly in the form of LNG. Based on these findings, this paper recommends that Indian government policies emphasize increasing domestic natural gas production, importing LNG, and expanding renewable energy resources.

High-Pressure Separation: New Technology in the Subsea Toolbox

_ Subsea production systems have come far in the more than 60 years since the first deployment in the US Gulf of Mexico, helping many countries unlock their offshore hydrocarbon riches in the years that followed. For Brazil, it was a combination of advances in subsea technologies and floating production, storage, and offloading vessel (FPSO) designs that supported the growth of its offshore oil and gas prowess. From those first forays into the Sergipe-Alagoas basin in the northeast during the 1970s, the country’s offshore oil and gas footprint has grown significantly, with today’s production from the pre-salt Campos and Santos basins—located farther from shore and in much deeper water—launching state-run oil company Petrobras to a top spot among the ranks of global producers. The ongoing development of its offshore fields will continue to boost the country’s oil and natural gas production in 2024. Since December 2022, five FPSOs have been brought online, with four installed in 2023 delivering record output. The fifth one—the FPSO Sepetiba—delivered a New Year’s Day surprise when it came online at Mero 2 oil field on 31 December 2023. HISEP, a new subsea technology currently being readied for pilot testing, could potentially ensure continued future production of the Mero field and others by capturing CO2-rich dense gases directly from the wellstream and reinjecting it into the reservoir. The technology also frees up much-needed space and reduces weight on the FPSO’s topside by moving the separation process to the seafloor. Challenges and Solutions Brazil’s challenging offshore pre-salt region—first explored by Petrobras in 2005—contains estimated reserves of 30 to 40 billion BOE and comes with an extensive list of development challenges. Its Santos Basin, for example, lies in ultradeep water with hydrocarbon reservoirs located at extreme depths ranging from 5500 to 7600 m below sea level and under salt layers more than 2000 m thick. But the challenges do not end there. Managing the basin’s high gas/oil ratio (GOR) and CO2 content leaves a significant operational footprint. In OTC 29762, authors from Petrobras noted that developing the pre-salt reservoirs requires “large production facilities with complex gas processing plants that limit the oil processing and storage capacities.” In the paper presented at the 2019 Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) Brasil, the authors said that the gas processing plants for some pre-salt fields with high production indexes, GOR, and CO2 content account for nearly 60% of the total FPSO topsides area. The Santos Basin is home to the Mero oil field, the country’s third-largest pre-salt field and the first under a production-sharing contract awarded to the Petrobras-led Libra Consortium. The field is considered one of the largest hydrocarbon discoveries in the past decade, covering about 320 km2 of the Libra block and with a net pay zone reaching 420 m filled with 29 °API oil and high productivity, according to Ana Luiza Neder, et al. (OTC 32784).

Natural Gas Production

Current data on natural gas production, as well as a breakdown of production by country. Updated on a monthly basis.

Short-term gas load prediction based on GRA-IPSO-LSTM

With the improvement of natural gas production, supply and marketing mechanism, the effective prediction of natural gas short-term load is of great significance for rational allocation of resources and solving urban energy security. Grey relation analysis (GRA) was used to determine the main controlling factors affecting the short-term load of natural gas. The inertia weight and acceleration factor of the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm were improved by applying a nonlinear change strategy. The hyperparameters suitable for the LSTM model were found by using an optimization algorithm, and a combination model of GRA-IPSO-LSTM was formed. Other models are compared to verify the accuracy and reliability of the model. The results show that, according to the size of the grey correlation degree, the factors that have little influence on the daily load can be deleted step by step to reduce the complexity of the subsequent prediction model. The iteration speed, convergence accuracy, and optimization quality of the IPSO algorithm are improved, which reduces the limitation of the artificial selection of LSTM model hyperparameters. The MAPE, RMSE, and R of the GRA-IPSO-LSTM combined model are 5461.02 m3, 0.49%, and 0.99932, which significantly improve the prediction accuracy, proving that the combined model in this paper can be used for accurate prediction of short-term natural gas load.

Assessment of chemical enhancement and energy consumption of natural gas dehydration processes

Water vapors are found in high concentrations during natural gas production and processing. Energy consumption is known to be a drawback of the glycol dehydration process. Toxic and greenhouse gas emissions are another drawback from the environmental point of view. This paper served to propose a solution to the two problems together by using an emissions stream from the regenerator distillation tower to serve as a striping gas which solved the environmental problem of emissions and helped to reduce energy consumption. Aspen HYSYS was used to model glycol dehydrating as the most widely used and economically viable technique for drying off natural gas streams. This method uses the solvent tri ethylene glycol (TEG) as the absorbent. The focus of this research is to analyze sensitivity to the modeling outcomes. Furthermore, the results suggest that the process might be enhanced and save energy consumption. The simulation used three different tri-ethylene glycol flows, stripping gas flows, and different reboiler temperatures were used in the simulation. The modeling technique was effective in decreasing the water content in the regeneration column from 75lb/MMSCF to 2.5lb/MMSCF and saving energy consumption during the dehydration of natural gas. However, the results showed that in the fourth case when the amount of triethylene glycol is equal to 665.3 kg/h, and reboiler energy is equal to 247300 kJ/h, therefore the energy consumed per kilogram of the TEG is equal to 371.7 kJ/kg which represents the lowest amount of energy consumed during solvent regeneration. However, the results suggest that using emissions as a stripping gas can increase TEG purity and boost the efficiency of the dehydration plant, which appears to be a better option in the long run. The results suggest that the demonstrated approach may help towards decarbonization and zero emission of the dehydration process.

Asymmetric Relationships Between Natural Gas Price Inflation and Macroeconomic Factors: The Case of Turkey

Energy inflation is one of the main factors affecting macroeconomic indicators. The price inflation of natural gas, which is the basic input of electricity generation, housing, industry and service sectors and causes less CO2 emissions than other fossil fuel energy types, is the focus of this study. Natural gas, like other fossil fuels, is a scarce energy source and is not evenly distributed around the world. For this reason, some countries export natural gas, while others import natural gas. Countries that are foreign-dependent in natural gas are affected by the political, geographical and economic conjuncture of the countries they import from. In this context, Turkey was affected by Russia-Ukraine war and natural gas prices increased accordingly. The study aims to determine the asymmetric relationships between natural gas price inflation and macroeconomic factors in Turkey. For this purpose, autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) and nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) models were used for Turkey's 1998Q1-2023Q2 data. As a result of the analysis, it was determined that there was an asymmetric relationship between natural gas inflation and producer price index, gross domestic product, balance of payments. The results obtained showed the importance of natural gas found in the Black Sea and natural gas pipelines passing through Turkey (TANAP etc.), and an ecopolitical evaluation was made in this context.

Characteristics of Tight Gas Reservoirs in the Xujiahe Formation in the Western Sichuan Depression: A Systematic Review

In current energy structure adjustments, the prominence of unconventional oil and gas resources continues to grow, with increasing attention being paid to tight gas, a major component of natural gas production. The Xujiahe Formation gas reservoir in the Western Sichuan Depression represents a typical tight gas reservoir and the study of its reservoir characteristics is a key focus for current and future exploration and development efforts. This review employs the PRISMA method to screen and integrate the primary findings of 26 documents spanning the period from 2008 to 2023, with the aim of providing a comprehensive overview of the progress and outcomes of research on the tight gas reservoir characteristics of the Xujiahe Formation in the Western Sichuan Depression. The selected research documents summarize the characteristics of the Xujiahe Formation tight gas reservoir in the Western Sichuan Depression from four perspectives: lithology, physical properties, reservoir space, and the main factors influencing reservoir quality. Through a review of these previous studies, it is evident that existing research has predominantly focused on the relationship between diagenesis and reservoir densification, indicating certain limitations. We also delve into the characteristics of tight gas sandstone reservoirs in the study area, considering their depositional systems, fracture development, cementation, and impact on the exploration and development of tight gas reservoirs. Additionally, we propose measures to stabilize and enhance tight gas production in the Xujiahe Formation in the Western Sichuan Depression. Moreover, we outline the next steps for further research and exploration.

Sustainable supply chain of distributed multi-product gas fields based on skid-mounted equipment to dynamically respond to upstream and market fluctuations

Efficient operation of the gas field supply chain is an important guarantee for oil and gas energy security, and it needs to dynamically adapt to upstream and market fluctuations. This paper proposes an innovative design and operation optimization mixed integer nonlinear programming (MILP) method for distributed supply chain based on skid equipment. Unlike the traditional methods, the proposed MILP method can simultaneously obtain upstream production planning, midstream modular equipment and processing capacity allocation, and downstream transportation allocation schemes for various natural gas products such as liquefied natural gas (LNG), compressed natural gas (CNG) and pipeline natural gas (PNG) of each time periods by making the maximum net present value (NPV) of the full development cycle as the target. In order to prove the superiority and usability of the proposed method, four operation scheduling modes are compared through two comprehensive case analysis. Additionally, the effects of gas well productivity, market demand and product price are investigated through sensitivity analysis. The results show that comparing with the traditional method, the proposed method can effectively improve the loading rate of the processing equipment, increase the overall revenue of gas field development, integrate the operation in the upstream, midstream and downstream of the supply chain, dynamically adapt to the gas production and marketing fluctuations. This study provides a creative way to obtain better profit, reduce energy utilization and promote cleaner production for sustainable supplies management in gas industry.

Life cycle cost and life cycle environmental analysis of the different waste-to-renewable natural gas pathways: An effort to identify an optimal pathway under different Multi-criteria decision-based scenarios

Currently, due to the insufficient resources of renewable natural gas, the development of renewable pathways to integrate into the natural gas-industry portfolio can reduce many concerns about the reserves depletion and the environmental crises. In the present article a structure-oriented framework for gas networks is developed to compare and prioritize different investment scenarios for renewable natural gas production projects. In this regard, different pathways to produce renewable natural gas through the waste-to-natural gas process were discussed and compared based on different waste feedstocks. To discuss and compare different pathways, a decision-making structure and framework under life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) and life cycle environmental analysis (LCEA) is employed to choose the appropriate pathway for the waste-to-natural gas process. The optimal pathway is identified through different multi-variable decision-making scenarios (under different geographical conditions, access to different feedstocks, and different interests of stakeholders). From the outcomes, under the neutral and Pro-economic scenarios, the renewable natural gas production pathway driven by landfill gas integrated with the pressure swing adsorption- biogas upgrading unit is the optimal and desirable option. While under an Eco-friendly scenario, the pathway driven by animal manure integrated with the pressure swing adsorption-upgrading unit is an optimal and desirable pathway.

Use of near-infrared spectroscopy for the online monitoring of natural gas composition (hydrocarbons, water and CO2 content) at high pressure

The natural gas production from Brazilian pre-salt fields imposed new challenges for petrochemical industry. Actual treatment facilities are not adequate for this new scenario and studies have been conducted to apply new adsorbents materials and membranes for water and CO2 removal from natural gas at high pressures. To better develop such investigations, sensors for on-line monitoring of natural gas properties like CO2 and water content are important, since their presence affects the quality of the final product. Near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy associated to chemometric models (partial least squares) were employed for on-line monitoring of representative natural gas systems (methane/CO2, methane/water and methane/CO2/water) and a real natural gas at temperature and pressure ranges from 20 to 60 °C and 10 to 200 bar, respectively, water content up to gas saturation and CO2 content up to 50 wt%. Water solubility values used as reference for NIR Spectrometer calibration in model systems were taken from the literature and for real natural gas calculated with Cubic Plus Association (CPA) Equation of State (EoS), while CO2 content was experimentally controlled aiming to calibrate the chemometric models in the full range of pressure and temperature. Several strategies were adopted for the chemometric model’s development to obtain the best correlation between NIR spectra and experimental data. Results indicate good correlation in both calibration and validation steps attaining linear correlation coefficients (R2) higher than 0.96 for all systems investigated. The proposed methodology is a potential tool for on-line monitoring of natural gas composition, including CO2 and water content, at high-pressures and can be applied at petrochemical industries or in laboratories, dispensing sampling or any sample preparation.

Metering of the Oil and Natural Gas System Emissions using Aerial Site Measurement

Aerial methane surveys of oil and natural gas systems have discovered large emissions, which are missing or vastly undercounted in official estimates. We integrate approximately one million aerial site measurements into regional emissions inventories, employing empirically grounded emissions simulations to estimate small emissions. We infer emissions inventories for six regions in the United States comprising 52% of onshore oil and 29% of gas production over fifteen aerial campaigns. Total estimated emissions range from 9.63% [9.03%, 10.37%] of natural gas production, roughly nine times the US government estimate, to 0.75% [0.65%, 0.85%] in a high-productivity gas-rich region. Aerially measured emissions at 0.05%-1.44% of well sites contribute 50%-81% of total emissions in twelve of fifteen campaigns. The social cost of methane emissions from these measured regions is roughly $9.4 billion per year, in addition to roughly $1 billion in lost sales. This highlights the importance of incorporating comprehensive remote sensing surveys into emissions inventories and efforts to benchmark and reduce methane emissions.

Efficient hydraulic and thermal simulation model of the multi-phase natural gas production system with variable speed compressors

The natural gas production system is a very complex system, involving pipelines, compressors and valves with different structures and calculation parameters. It can be divided into two different parts: gas production and collection pipe networks. Fluid flow in the gas production pipe network is multi-phase flow. Fluid flow in the gas collection pipe network is single-phase flow. It is imperative to consider gas production and collection pipe networks in conjunction to ensure accurate operation simulation. The complexity of the network structures and flow statuses can cause computational instability or even divergence problems in simulations when coupling these two types of pipe networks. To address this issue, an automatic and practical node numbering method is proposed for the large-scale pipe network, which can ensure the full rank of the solution matrix and computational stability. On the other hand, due to the need for frequent adjustments of the pipe networks to satisfy the production demand, computational boundary treatments of constant inlet/outlet pressure, constant flow rate or constant pressure ratio for the compressor stations are not suitable. To address this issue, the characteristic curves of compressors are coupled into the simulation of pipe networks to represent the variable-speed centrifugal and reciprocating compressors.The accuracy and robustness of the proposed models and numerical methods are validated through comparisons with software results and field data. The simulation time is only within 0.5 s for the natural gas production system with 210 nodes and 176 pipelines. Our model has relative deviations within 3% in both pressure and flow rate compared to field data and within 10% compared to software.

An innovative gas management methodology based on PSA for efficient gas allocation and utilization in hybrid hydrogen network: Integrating process simulation, modeling, and machine learning

Pressure swing adsorption(PSA) based gas separation technology is widely applied in chemical industries, especially in hydrogen purification. Its complex mechanism and non-steady state feature restrict the separation performance adjustment and application on efficient gas utilization. Process simulation, machine learning and modelling combined innovating gas management methodology is proposed in this paper to perform accurate gas separation for natural gas based syngas mixture. VB script program is employed to drive Aspen adsorption simulation, and then classical and regression tree(CART), polynomial regression(PNR) and surrogate model are comprehensively used to perform machine learning. Consequently, the coefficient matrix is obtained to quantify the separation performance. This method holds the potential for broader application in refineries and SPCs hybrid hydrogen network, facilitating the comprehensive utilization of hydrogen containing gases. Case study results show this methodology can conserve natural gas and gas productivity by 21.3 %, as well as carbon emission by 8211.6 Nm3/h. This work highlights the promising application of digital twin technology within the chemical industry, showcasing how process simulation, machine learning, and modeling can collectively revolutionize gas management and resource conservation.

The method of improving the cementing quality of the interface in deep coalbed gas well through the wetting reversal technique

ABSTRACT Coalbed methane, also known as coalbed methane gas, is a natural gas formed by the biogeochemical and pyrolysis processes during the formation and evolution of coal and stored in coal seams. Compared with conventional coalbed methane, deep coalbed methane has a rich resource and is an important substitute for natural gas increase, storage, and production. During the process of coalbed methane extraction, the inability of coal rock to bond well with cement slurry leads to a decrease in the quality of cementing, which has become one of the main problems affecting the extraction of deep coalbed methane. To address this issue, this paper first analyzes the microstructure of the coal rock-cement interface to reveal the mechanism of strengthening the coal rock-cement interface bonding. Then, using the wettability of coal rock as an evaluation index and the surfactant wetting modification method, the paper modified the surface of coal rock to enhance its hydrophilicity, optimized the suitable coal rock wetting modification agent, and finally evaluated the enhancement effect of the coal rock wetting modification agent on the quality of the coal rock-cement interface bonding through interface bonding experiments. The research results indicate that the hydrophobicity of coal rock surface is the main reason for the poor bonding between coal rock and cement. The three primary surfactants can improve the water wettability of coal and rock surfaces by 41.57%–52.95%, among which AES surfactant has the best improvement effect. After soaking in 0.5% AES solution at 85°C for 8 min, the hydrophilicity of coal rock can be increased by 72.3%. There are no obvious cracks between the coal rock-cement interface, and the bonding quality of the coal rock-cement interface has increased 2.69 times. Coal rock surface wetting modification can effectively enhance the interface bonding effect, which is conducive to improving the quality of cementing of deep coalbed methane.

Research on the security of natural gas supply and demand in China under the dual carbon target.

The security of natural gas supply is not only an important part of China's energy security, it also serves as a basic guarantee for China to achieve its dual carbon target and energy transition. Therefore, it is very important to conduct research on the security of China's natural gas supply and demand in the context of the dual carbon target. This paper develops a system dynamics (SD) model for natural gas demand forecasting and a generalized Weng's model for production forecasting to predict China's natural gas demand and production under different scenarios during 2022-2060, and then analyzes China's natural gas supply and demand situation and potential import and external dependence based on the forecast results. The simulation results show that (1) under the two demand scenarios D1 and D2, China's natural gas demand will peak at 766.02 billion m3 in 2046 and 708.07 billion m3 in 2036 and decline to 521.65 billion m3 and 278.99 billion m3 in 2060 respectively; (2) under the two production scenarios S1 and S2, China's natural gas production will peak at 344.581 billion m3 in 2042 and 366.341 billion m3 in 2043 and decrease to about 250 billion m3 in 2060; (3) before 2035, the security of natural gas supply in China will face a challenging situation, the total volume of potential gas imports will gradually increase to about 350 billion m3, and China's dependence on natural gas imports will exceed 50%; after 2035, the progress of China's energy transition will improve the security of its natural gas supply. This paper proposes four recommendations for expanding gas demand in the near to medium term, promoting conventional and unconventional gas production, diversifying import channels and building emergency reserves to ensure China's gas supply security and enable gas to play a "bridging" role in the energy transition.

Enhanced reduction of COD in water associated with natural gas production using iron-based nanoparticles.

The natural gas production industry faces the problem of the proper disposal of produced water and its treatment with significantly advanced technologies to meet the minimum quality standard for irrigation activities, commercial purposes, and consumption by living organisms. This study describes an effective method for reducing the COD (chemical oxygen demand) content in formation water using different metal oxide nanoparticles such as iron oxide (FO), iron zinc oxide (FZO), and iron vanadium oxide (FVO) nanoparticles. These nanoparticles were synthesized and fully characterized using powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis, dynamic light scattering particle size (DLS) analysis and zeta potential analysis. The experimental results revealed that the maximum reduction of COD content was 42.18% using FVO nanoparticles with a dose of 3 g L-1 at 25 °C and pH = 6. Compared to commercial products [Redoxy and Oxy(OXYSORB)], the synthesized FO, FZO, and FVO nanoparticles demonstrated their superiority by achieving excellent results in decreasing the COD content of wastewater associated with natural gas production by more than 86%. This study introduces a promising technique for decreasing the COD content using metal oxide nanoparticles, which are eco-friendly, bio-safe, cheap, and nontoxic materials, and improving the quality of wastewater associated with natural gas production for its safe disposal through sewage and treatment plants.

Measuring methane destruction efficiency in gas flares with dual comb spectroscopy

Gas flaring is used as an alternative to venting when waste gases cannot be captured from industrial processes such as oil and natural gas production, chemical processing, and waste management. In the oil and natural gas production sector alone, an estimated 3.5 % of total global natural gas production is flared. Survey studies have shown that the methane destruction efficiency (DE) of flares is lower than expected due to real-world conditions (weather and equipment malfunction) and estimate that improving flare efficiency is a 0.5 Tg/yr methane emissions reduction opportunity. Continuous monitoring of flare DE would provide the opportunity for feedback to lower emissions; however, there are currently no technologies used at scale that can provide such a measurement. Here we present a method for measuring the operational methane DE from flares by monitoring methane levels in flares using dual-frequency comb spectroscopy. This method leverages the temperature-dependent absorption fingerprint of methane to differentiate heated and ambient methane. We assess the capabilities of this technique through a set of laboratory-based experiments utilizing a partially premixed methane flame. We estimate the limit of detection (LOD) and sensitivity of the measurements for directly monitoring a flame, and monitoring a flame from a distance of 1 km in the presence of ambient methane. For our configuration, a targeted monitoring scenario (direct flame measurement) results in the ability to distinguish methane DE up to 99.9 %; whereas in the presence of a 1 km background methane signal, the approach is able to quantify methane DE to 97.5 %. These performance metrics could be improved through an updated high-temperature spectral absorption database for methane, however the current estimated performance could already substantially impact flare emissions by closing the gap between the flare design specifications and what research studies estimate from actual in-field performance.

Natural Gas Production

Current data on natural gas production, as well as a breakdown of production by country. Updated on a monthly basis.