The US oil and gas industry is emitting less carbon than it used to
The U.S. energy industry continues to extract record amounts of fossil fuels, despite climate activists’ calls to “keep it in the ground.” But while oil and gas extraction has increased in recent years, the carbon emissions from that industrial activity have actually fallen, a new analysis has found. Even as fossil gas production rose by 40 percent from 2015 to 2022, methane emissions from gas extraction fell by 37 percent, according to a study of Environmental Protection Agency data published today by climate nonprofits Ceres and the Clean Air Task Force. That finding suggests that when energy companies want to, they can effectively reduce emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas with 82 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide over 20 years, and 30 times the warming potential over 100 years. Overall greenhouse gas emissions, which count the industry’s considerable carbon dioxide releases, also fell, but by a more modest 14 percent. There’s a clear playbook for tackling the planet-warming emissions that result from combusting fossil fuels in power plants or vehicles. But the extraction of those fuels happens farther from public view, and adds up to a major source of industrial emissions. Indeed, oil and gas extraction and refining emitted more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than any other industrial subsector last year, the Rhodium Group reports. And while power and transportation emissions are falling, heavy industry is on track to become the largest emitting sector within the next decade. If oil and gas extraction isn’t about to disappear, then making it as clean as possible is a clear win for the climate. The EPA is working on this, with new regulations on the industry’s emissions and an incoming fee on excess methane emissions that was passed in the Inflation Reduction Act. The new report shows that lower-carbon technologies and processes are in fact available, because many, though not all, leading oil companies have already adopted them. “It is possible to produce gas with lower emissions, but not all companies are performing equally,” said Lesley Feldman, who worked on the report and is a research and analysis manager on the Clean Air Task Force’s methane pollution prevention team. “We’re poised to have even stronger regulations coming into effect, and it’s important that those are fully implemented.” National fossil fuel production rose substantially from 2015 to 2022, but total methane and overall carbon emissions from that activity actually fell. (Ceres and Clean Air Task Force) Methane emissions fell, even during the Permian oil boom The U.S. oil and gas industry emits a lot of carbon in the process of extracting fossil fuels, which then emit more carbon when they get burned later on. But the emissions trends are heading in the right direction, at least through 2022: Despite vastly more extraction, overall emissions fell. That means the industry is emitting much less carbon per unit of oil or gas produced today than it was seven years ago. The major caveat is that the available EPA dataset underestimates actual emissions, Feldman said. The agency requires reporting only from facilities that emit above a certain threshold, and the rules don’t currently capture super emitter events when large amounts of methane leak out unexpectedly. Field studies have shown that “fugitive methane” has been leaking from gas fields at far higher rates than previously assumed; the EPA’s new rules should instigate more accurate reporting of those events. But the current data provides a useful if incomplete picture of the known sources of oil and gas field emissions. To test the thesis that the oil industry can reduce its emissions intensity, there’s no better place to look than the Permian Basin, which has become the heart of domestic oil production since the shale revolution. The basin releases more carbon emissions from fossil fuel extraction than any other U.S. region. Total hydrocarbon production in the Permian more than tripled from 2015 to 2022, and gas production rose by 163 percent. Given that stunning increase in fossil fuel production, one might expect a comparable surge in emissions — but that’s not what happened. Permian methane emissions actually fell by 16 percent by 2022, though they did rise significantly in the intervening years before subsiding again. Driving that improvement, the region’s operators managed to reduce vented methane by 24 percent and cut reported fugitive methane emissions by 22 percent. So far, so good. On the other hand, some producers deal with buildup in gas pressure by burning or flaring it, which converts most of the methane to carbon dioxide before it escapes into the atmosphere. Emissions from flaring in the Permian at the end of 2022 were at double their 2015 levels. Combustion emissions, which come from the equipment that powers extraction, nearly quadrupled during that time. Those increases in carbon dioxide emissions pushed overall GHG emissions up by 65 percent. One big takeaway: Cleaning up Permian oil production will require tackling the on-site combustion of fuels.
The U.S. energy industry continues to extract record amounts of fossil fuels, despite climate activists’ calls to “keep it in the ground.” But while oil and gas extraction has increased in recent years, the carbon emissions from that industrial activity have actually fallen, a new analysis has found. Even as fossil…
The U.S. energy industry continues to extract record amounts of fossil fuels, despite climate activists’ calls to “keep it in the ground.” But while oil and gas extraction has increased in recent years, the carbon emissions from that industrial activity have actually fallen, a new analysis has found.
Even as fossil gas production rose by 40 percent from 2015 to 2022, methane emissions from gas extraction fell by 37 percent, according to a study of Environmental Protection Agency data published today by climate nonprofits Ceres and the Clean Air Task Force. That finding suggests that when energy companies want to, they can effectively reduce emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas with 82 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide over 20 years, and 30 times the warming potential over 100 years. Overall greenhouse gas emissions, which count the industry’s considerable carbon dioxide releases, also fell, but by a more modest 14 percent.
There’s a clear playbook for tackling the planet-warming emissions that result from combusting fossil fuels in power plants or vehicles. But the extraction of those fuels happens farther from public view, and adds up to a major source of industrial emissions. Indeed, oil and gas extraction and refining emitted more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than any other industrial subsector last year, the Rhodium Group reports. And while power and transportation emissions are falling, heavy industry is on track to become the largest emitting sector within the next decade.
If oil and gas extraction isn’t about to disappear, then making it as clean as possible is a clear win for the climate. The EPA is working on this, with new regulations on the industry’s emissions and an incoming fee on excess methane emissions that was passed in the Inflation Reduction Act. The new report shows that lower-carbon technologies and processes are in fact available, because many, though not all, leading oil companies have already adopted them.
“It is possible to produce gas with lower emissions, but not all companies are performing equally,” said Lesley Feldman, who worked on the report and is a research and analysis manager on the Clean Air Task Force’s methane pollution prevention team. “We’re poised to have even stronger regulations coming into effect, and it’s important that those are fully implemented.”
Methane emissions fell, even during the Permian oil boom
The U.S. oil and gas industry emits a lot of carbon in the process of extracting fossil fuels, which then emit more carbon when they get burned later on. But the emissions trends are heading in the right direction, at least through 2022: Despite vastly more extraction, overall emissions fell. That means the industry is emitting much less carbon per unit of oil or gas produced today than it was seven years ago.
The major caveat is that the available EPA dataset underestimates actual emissions, Feldman said. The agency requires reporting only from facilities that emit above a certain threshold, and the rules don’t currently capture super emitter events when large amounts of methane leak out unexpectedly. Field studies have shown that “fugitive methane” has been leaking from gas fields at far higher rates than previously assumed; the EPA’s new rules should instigate more accurate reporting of those events. But the current data provides a useful if incomplete picture of the known sources of oil and gas field emissions.
To test the thesis that the oil industry can reduce its emissions intensity, there’s no better place to look than the Permian Basin, which has become the heart of domestic oil production since the shale revolution. The basin releases more carbon emissions from fossil fuel extraction than any other U.S. region.
Total hydrocarbon production in the Permian more than tripled from 2015 to 2022, and gas production rose by 163 percent. Given that stunning increase in fossil fuel production, one might expect a comparable surge in emissions — but that’s not what happened.
Permian methane emissions actually fell by 16 percent by 2022, though they did rise significantly in the intervening years before subsiding again. Driving that improvement, the region’s operators managed to reduce vented methane by 24 percent and cut reported fugitive methane emissions by 22 percent. So far, so good.
On the other hand, some producers deal with buildup in gas pressure by burning or flaring it, which converts most of the methane to carbon dioxide before it escapes into the atmosphere. Emissions from flaring in the Permian at the end of 2022 were at double their 2015 levels. Combustion emissions, which come from the equipment that powers extraction, nearly quadrupled during that time. Those increases in carbon dioxide emissions pushed overall GHG emissions up by 65 percent. One big takeaway: Cleaning up Permian oil production will require tackling the on-site combustion of fuels.