Intermittency of Large Methane Emitters in the Permian Basin

The Permian Basin is the largest
and fastest growing oil and gas
(O&G) producing region in the United States. We conducted an extensive
airborne campaign across the majority of the Permian in September–November,
2019 with imaging spectrometers to quantify strong methane (CH4) point source emissions at facility-scales, including high
frequency sampling to evaluate intermittency. We identified 1100 unique
and heavy-tailed distributed sources that were sampled at least 3
times (average 8 times), showing 26% average persistence. Sources
that were routinely persistent (50–100%) make up only 11% of
high emitting infrastructure but 29% of quantified emissions from
this population, potentially indicative of leaking equipment that
merits repair. Sector attribution of plumes shows that 50% of detected
emissions result from O&G production, 38% from gathering and boosting,
and 12% from processing. This suggests a 20% relative shift from upstream
to midstream compared to other US O&G basins for large emitters.
Simultaneous spectroscopic identification of flares found that 12%
of detected Permian CH4 plume emissions were associated
with either active or inactive flares. Frequent, high-resolution monitoring
is necessary to accurately understand intermittent methane superemitters
across large, heterogeneous O&G basins and efficiently pinpoint
persistent leaks for mitigation.