Launch of report on greenhouse gas emissions in the natural gas supply chain

Today the Sustainable Gas Institute launches its first white paper covering the topic of greenhouse gas emissions in the natural gas supply chain.

Natural gas is viewed by many as a lower carbon energy source than other fossil fuels. However, this does not always take into account losses that occur during the processing and transportation of natural gas from the ground to the end consumer. The Sustainable Gas Institute, based at Imperial College London, today releases its white paper that address this shortcoming by providing a systematic and comprehensive review of the available global research.

The main component of natural gas is methane, which is a much stronger greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide in the short term. Although burning gas is less carbon intensive than coal, methane emissions may negate this relative climate benefit. “The unknown quantity in this calculation is how much methane is released during the extraction, processing and transportation of natural gas. This could lead to a re-evaluation of natural gas’s green credentials.

To try and understand the problem the Sustainable Gas Institute has conducted a thorough and systematic review of all the available academic, industrial and policy literature. The work brings together research from many different sources and evaluates the differences over the estimates of losses within the supply chain, the global warming potential of methane compared to carbon dioxide and the different methods used to estimate emissions.

Paul Balcombe, lead author for the study: “We found an extremely large range of emissions across the various supply chain and we have highlighted specific stages with the largest emissions. However, there is potential to significantly reduce the higher emissions with the use of modern equipment and effective operation and maintenance procedures. This paper serves as a crucial reference document for academia, the gas industry and policy makers”

The paper Methane and CO2 emissions from the natural gas supply chain: an evidence assessment [PDF] is launched today, 24 September 2015, at Imperial College London.

You can download a copy from the Sustainable Gas Institute website.