The natural gas industry received a gold star for performance during the recent cold weather across a large portion of the United States. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported recently consumption of natural gas in the residential and commercial sectors set a record for the week ending on Jan. 5. EIA said consumption reached 452 billion cubic feet (Bcf) compared with 348 Bcf during the previous week, according to estimates from PointLogic Energy. Total weekly natural gas consumption in the Lower 48 states increased by 150 Bcf, reaching 961 Bcf for the week ending Jan. 5. Another 50 Bcf was exported by pipeline. EIA also noted natural gas spot prices at the national benchmark Henry Hub in Louisiana averaged $3.01 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) in 2017 about 50 cents per MMBtu higher than in 2016. Overall, natural gas prices at key regional
Plantagenet wrote:-snip-
One of the first things we need to do to mitigate global warming is to reduce and then end the use of NG.
-snip-
KaiserJeep wrote: The replacement of coal by NG was the brightest hope during Obama's terms. Now you say it's a problem. Surely less of a problem than dirty coal.
The EPA has outlawed venting of NG because it is a pollutant. It is also a powerful greenhouse gas...about 60X more effective then CO2.
Nonetheless, CH4 emissions from the oil and gas industry have risen rapidly since 2005 to the point that global methane emissions are causing a sharp rise in global atmospheric methane levels. This in turn is contributing to the significant rise in global temperatures we are seeing, with a global T increase of 0.4°C just over the last four years.
Based on the latest data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, EID’s report shows methane emissions from the most productive shale basins in the country have fallen considerably in the past six years. These reductions have been achieved even as oil and natural gas production has increased 54 percent and 16 percent, respectively, during that time thanks to advances in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing technology.
Despite the fact that production in the Permian doubled from 2011 to 2016, methane emissions have decreased 6.3 percent, according to GHGRP data.
EPA data also show that methane emissions in the Williston Basin — home of the Bakken Shale in North Dakota and Montana — have fallen 8.3 percent from 2011 to 2016. These declines came at the same time that oil and natural gas production in the region has quadrupled, as the following EIA graphics show
global methane emissions are causing a sharp rise in global atmospheric methane levels.the U.S. ... methane
KaiserJeep wrote:Those figures you are quoting just do not correlate with the IPCC data.
. The US is a major source of methane going into the atmosphere. The 6-8% reductions in CH4 leaks from some US oil basins that you are touting sound nice, until you do the math and find that 92-94% of the outrageous amount of CH4 found leaking into the atmosphere is STILL leaking into the atmosphere. And there are more methane leaks from NG infrastructure such as pipelines and storage facilities all around the world.
2. The NASA paper I link to above shows clearly that there isn't any doubt that global methane levels in the atmosphere are spiking. Fur†hermore, isotopic analyses of the methane show it is mainly derived from the oil and gas industry
. The US is a major source of methane going into the atmosphere. The 6-8% reductions in CH4 leaks from some US oil basins that you are touting sound nice, until you do the math and find that 92-94% of the outrageous amount of CH4 found leaking into the atmosphere is STILL leaking into the atmosphere. And there are more methane leaks from NG infrastructure such as pipelines and storage facilities all around the world.
You miss the point of the study. The methane emissions over all of the shale basins have been decreasing at the same time production has been increasing.
Fur†hermore, isotopic analyses of the methane show it is mainly derived from the oil and gas industry
I scanned the paper but did not find this reference..
However, determining the relative contributions of anthropogenic, biogeochemical, and chemical drivers of methane trends has been extremely challenging and consequently there is effectively no confidence in projections of future atmospheric methane concentrations. The striking disagreement from several recent studies explaining the changes to atmospheric methane since 2006 is likely due to the assumptions (and extrapolations) involved in attributing source variability to the observed changes in atmospheric methane. For example, surface measurements of CH4 and its isotopic composition suggest a shift of methane sources toward increasing tropical biogenic (BG) sources. However, this explanation appears to directly conflict with observations of increasing FF sources that range between 5 and 25 Tg CH4 per year based on ethane/CH4 ratios as well as studies based on satellite-based total column methane measurements. Other studies show that we cannot rule out inter-annual variations in the hydroxyl radical (OH) chemical methane sink as the cause; however, these studies do not directly show changes in atmospheric OH or provide a mechanistic reason for a change.
rockdoc123 wrote:Look dipshit......
Get a grip on yourself, crockdoc.
Accounting for previously neglected FFgeo, our correction of 20%–60% higher CH4 emissions from natural gas, oil and coal production and use implies a greater potential for industry efficiency improvements to mitigate anthropogenic climate forcing. Yet, this study does not confirm an upward trend of FFind emissions in global CH4 inventories despite the large increase in natural gas, oil and coal production and use over the past three decades. Instead, this study finds that natural-gas CH4 emissions per unit of production have declined from about 8% in the mid-1980 s to about 2% in the late 2000s and early 2010s.
If there was a huge problem the increased drilling and production should have resulted in a significant increase in methane emissions.
production is increasing and measured emissions are decreasing.
While your statement is true for some individual basins in the USA, on a global basis emissions from fossil fuels are INCREASING. Consider the facts:
The huge increase in methane from the oil and gas industry partly reflects the increasing use of NG in US power plants, with concomitant leaks of CH4 from fracked wells, pipes, storage containers, etc. all through the US energy system.
There has been a recent increase in atmospheric methane. I know you dispute this, but the NASA report I linked to above begins: A new NASA-led study has solved a puzzle involving the recent rise in atmospheric methane, a potent greenhouse gas Surely even you, in spite of your reading comprehension problems, can can understand that sentence. It says there has been a "recent rise in atmospheric methane.
The NASA paper I link to above shows clearly that there isn't any doubt that global methane levels in the atmosphere are spiking.
Nonetheless, CH4 emissions from the oil and gas industry have risen rapidly since 2005 to the point that global methane emissions are causing a sharp rise in global atmospheric methane levels
Really, when you control your emotions and think about these things in a rational way its not so very complicated, is it?
As far as I am aware nobody has gone around measuring CH4 leaks from wells around the world as EPA has done in the US. Just try and do that in a place like Algeria or Qatar two countries with huge natural gas production.
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