SPE Live Distinguished Lecturer Series: Methane Emissions: Our Obligation and Our Opportunity in the Energy Transition

Link to live stream:  SPE Live Stream

The world has entered an energy transition where the future role of energy sources will depend partially on their greenhouse gas footprint. While that transition is expected to take a generation, some changes will occur quickly. One of the fastest ways to combat climate change is to reduce emissions of methane, not carbon dioxide.

 Methane is the main component of natural gas and a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. The oil and gas industry handles a large quantity of methane, and a small amount of that methane leaks to the atmosphere. Because methane is such a potent greenhouse gas, those emissions are small in volume but large in environmental impact: methane is the dominant source of our industry's direct greenhouse gas emissions, above other sources like flaring.

During this SPE Live, the SPE distinguished lecturer, Drew Pomerantz, describes the main sources of methane emissions, the market, and political drivers to reduce methane emissions, and the new technologies being developed to find and fix methane leaks.