Retraction: Methane Emissions From the Marcellus Shale in Southwestern Pennsylvania and Northern West Virginia Based on Airborne Measurements

Ren, X.; Hall, Dolly; Vinciguerra, T.; Benish, Sarah E.; Stratton, Philip R.; Ahn, Doyeon; Hansford, J. R.; Cohen, Mark; Sahu, Sayantan; He, Hao; Grimes, Courtney; Salawitch, R. J.; Ehrman, Sheryl H.; Dickerson, Russell R.

doi:10.1002/jgrd.54397

Cited by 2 publications

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References 2 publications

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“…For example, only two out of the 15 research flights in a 2015 study in the Fayetteville oil and gas production region were suitable for performing mass balance estimates of CH 4 emissions (Schwietzke et al, 2017). Complex meteorological conditions, for example, the Fresno eddy circulation in the San Joaquin Valley in California, often impede this measurement-based estimate (Cui et al, 2017) and can even result in large errors due to mischaracterized winds (Ren et al, 2018). Meanwhile, it is not suitable for identifying spatial patterns of emitters in the O/NG domain.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inversion Estimates of Lognormally Distributed Methane Emission Rates From the Haynesville‐Bossier Oil and Gas Production Region Using Airborne Measurements

et al. 2019

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Quantifying methane (CH4) emissions from the oil and natural gas (O/NG) production sector is an important regulatory challenge in the United States. In this study, we conduct a set of inversion calculations using different methods to quantify lognormal distributed CH4 surface fluxes in the Haynesville‐Bossier O/NG production basin in Texas and Louisiana, combining three statistical cost functions, four meteorological configurations, and two days of aircraft measurements from a 2013 field campaign. We aggregate our posterior flux estimates to derive our best estimate of the basin‐wide CH4 emissions, 76 metric tons/hr, with a 95% highest density interval of 51–104 metric tons/hr, in agreement with previous estimates using mass balance and eddy covariance approaches with the same aircraft measurements. Our inversion estimate of basin‐wide CH4 emissions is 133% (89%–182%, 95% highest density interval) of a gridded Environmental Protection Agency's inventory for 2012, and the largest discrepancies between our study and this inventory are located in the northeastern quadrant of the basin containing active unconventional O/NG wells. Our inversion approach provides a new spatiotemporal characterization of CH4 emissions in this O/NG production region and shows the usefulness of inverse modeling for improving O/NG CH4 emission estimates.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inversion Estimates of Lognormally Distributed Methane Emission Rates From the Haynesville‐Bossier Oil and Gas Production Region Using Airborne Measurements

et al. 2019

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Methane Emissions from the Marcellus Shale in Southwestern Pennsylvania and Northern West Virginia Based on Airborne Measurements

et al. 2019

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Natural gas production in the United States has increased rapidly over the past decade, along with concerns about methane (CH4) fugitive emissions and its climate impacts. Quantification of CH4 emissions from oil and natural gas (O&NG) operations is important for establishing scientifically sound policies for mitigating greenhouse gases. We use the aircraft mass balance approach for three flight experiments in August and September 2015 to estimate CH4 emissions from O&NG operations over the southwestern Marcellus Shale. We estimate a mean CH4 emission rate as 21.2 kg/s with 28% coming from O&NG operations. The mean CH4 emission rate from O&NG operations was estimated to be 1.1% of total NG production. The individual best‐estimate emission rates from the three flight experiments ranged from 0.78 to 1.5%, with overall limits of 0% and 3.5%. These emission rates are at the low end of other top‐down studies, but consistent with the few observational studies in the Marcellus Shale region as well as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency CH4 inventory. A substantial source of CH4 (~70% of observed CH4 emissions) was found to contain little ethane, possibly due to coalbed CH4 emitted either directly from coal mines or from wells drilled through coalbed layers in O&NG operations. Recent regulations requiring capture of gas from the completion‐venting step of hydraulic fracturing appear to have reduced the atmospheric release of CH4. Our study suggests that for a 20‐year time scale, energy derived from the combustion of natural gas extracted from this region likely exerts a net climate benefit compared to coal.

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Retraction: Methane Emissions From the Marcellus Shale in Southwestern Pennsylvania and Northern West Virginia Based on Airborne Measurements

Cited by 2 publications

References 2 publications

Inversion Estimates of Lognormally Distributed Methane Emission Rates From the Haynesville‐Bossier Oil and Gas Production Region Using Airborne Measurements

Inversion Estimates of Lognormally Distributed Methane Emission Rates From the Haynesville‐Bossier Oil and Gas Production Region Using Airborne Measurements

Methane Emissions from the Marcellus Shale in Southwestern Pennsylvania and Northern West Virginia Based on Airborne Measurements

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