General
News
When The Flames Go Out, The Permian’s Methane Problem Worsens.
According to Bloomberg, “The orange flames that dot the Permian Basin have sparked criticism from investment bankers and shale pioneers
who say the energy industry is wasting a valuable resource by burning off natural gas. Yet the flares are proving a bigger contributor to climate change if they are unlit. The Environmental Defense Fund surveyed more than 300 sites in the Permian and found
that roughly 1 in 10 flares was unlit or malfunctioning. That means more gas is being released straight into the atmosphere, contributing a lot more to the basin’s methane emissions than previously thought. The findings are part of EDF’s PermianMAP initiative,
launched last year as a way to quantify the methane emissions from America’s biggest oil field, which until recently was considered a black box. The environmental group used satellite images to identify areas where flaring is prevalent, and then flew helicopters
with infrared cameras to detect which sites -- called flare stacks -- were releasing methane. Two surveys have been conducted, one in February and another in late March, and EDF plans a third in the near future. Flaring is meant to get rid of fuel that companies
can’t or don’t put into pipelines by burning off methane, a greenhouse gas at least 30 times more potent than carbon dioxide at heating up the planet. The practice has skyrocketed in the last few years as output in the Permian, which stretches across West
Texas and southeastern New Mexico, has surged. Growing methane emissions globally have alarmed climate scientists.” [Bloomberg,
4/30/20
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The Business Of Burps: Scientists Smell Profit In Cow Emissions.
According to the New York Times, “Peaches, a brown-and-white Jersey cow weighing 1,200 pounds, was amiably following Edward Towers through
a barn on a sunny March morning when the 6-year-old dug in her front hooves. Mr. Towers, a 28-year-old-farmer whose family owns Brades Farm, near Britain’s rugged Lake District, slapped Peaches gently to move her along. She didn’t budge. Already muddy from
a morning herding hundreds of cows to a milking session, Mr. Towers leaned all his weight into Peaches’ ample backside, until she finally stepped through a metal gate that would hold her head still for an exam. Deepashree Kand, a scientist studying animal
nutrition, stepped forward with a device about the size of a grocery-store scanner. As David Bowie’s ‘Changes’ played on a radio, Ms. Kand pointed a green laser at the cow’s nostril and waited for Peaches to belch. Ms. Kand’s employer, a Swiss company called
Mootral, is studying whether an altered diet can make cattle burp and fart less methane — one of the most harmful greenhouse gases and a major contributor to climate change. If they were a country, cows would rank as the world’s sixth-largest emitter, ahead
of Brazil, Japan and Germany, according to data compiled by Rhodium Group, a research firm. It is a well-known problem that has had few promising solutions. But in the last five years, a collection of companies and scientists has been getting closer to what
would be an ecological and financial breakthrough: an edible product that would change cows’ digestive chemistry and reduce their emission of methane.” [New York Times,
5/1/20
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Faulty, Unlit Flares Among Largest Sources Of Methane.
According to E&E News, “Unlit or malfunctioning flares in the Permian Basin are one of the largest sources of methane emissions in the
oil-producing region, according to new research based on helicopter surveys this spring. The PermianMAP initiative, a project of the Environmental Defense Fund, said that more than 1 in every 10 flares studied was either unlit or only partially burning, releasing
methane directly into the atmosphere. Flaring is responsible for an estimated 300,000 metric tons of methane pollution per year, according to the flyover data — 3.5 times more than current EPA estimates. The results are striking because oil companies burn
away unwanted natural gas at well sites in part to avoid venting methane, a greenhouse gas that is much more potent than carbon dioxide. ‘We’ve known for a while that flares are a source of enormous waste of the gas,’ said Colin Leyden, EDF’s director of regulatory
and legislative affairs. ‘What we’re now finding out is that flares are also a significant contributor to climate and other pollution.’ EPA assumes companies flare gas away at a 98% efficiency rate, combusting most of it into water and CO2 and only leaking
residual amounts of methane and other chemicals. That’s why flaring hasn’t previously been categorized as a major source of methane emissions in the Permian Basin. EDF said the new data demonstrates that far more of the powerful greenhouse gas is entering
the atmosphere unburned than previously understood.” [E&E News, 5/1/20
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Texas Shale Driller Concho Takes $12.6 Billion Charge, Citing Coronavirus Impacts.
According to the Wall Street Journal, “Texas shale driller Concho Resources Inc. CXO -4.33% reported a net quarterly loss of $9.3 billion
Thursday and wrote down the value of its oil and gas assets by $12.6 billion, a sign of the severe stress U.S. oil and gas companies are feeling as demand for their products erodes. Concho, a Midland, Texas-based producer with a market capitalization of about
$11 billion, attributed the impairment to a steep decline in oil and gas prices and market weakness due to the novel coronavirus. U.S. benchmark oil closed around $19 a barrel Thursday, up from less than zero last week. Excluding the charges and other one-off
items, the company said it generated quarterly profits of $142 million. Concho’s charge is one of the largest by an oil and gas producer in years, exceeding Chevron Corp. ‘s write-down of more than $10 billion last year. It comes two years after Concho agreed
to buy RSP Permian Inc. for about $9.5 billion. That deal valued RSP’s assets at about $76,000 per acre, significantly higher than other deals in the Permian Basin oilfield of Texas and New Mexico around that time, which were for $40,000 an acre or less. ‘We
are managing through the volatility and uncertainty from a position of strength, which we are focused on maintaining by aligning our operations with current market realities,’ Concho Chief Executive Tim Leach said in a statement Thursday.” [Wall Street Journal,
4/30/20
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Army Corps Permit Puts Permian Project In Legal Limbo.
According to E&E News, “A court order that blocked an Army Corps of Engineers process for delivering water-crossing permits to pipeline
projects should be enough to stop a $2 billion project in Texas that would ship natural gas to Gulf Coast markets, according to a Sierra Club complaint. The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, requested a court injunction
to halt construction on the 420-mile Texas pipeline project. It cited an April court order that stemmed from litigation over the contentious Keystone XL pipeline project. Last month’s order by a federal court in Montana focused on an Army Corps permit granted
without consulting the Fish and Wildlife Service, as required by the Endangered Species Act. The ruling led the Army Corps to suspend its entire Nationwide Permit 12 program, which threw energy projects across the country into turmoil (Energywire, April 27).
Sierra Club lawyers are arguing that the use of the Nationwide Permit 12 process is a strike against the proposed Permian Highway pipeline. ‘It is outrageous that the Corps approved this project without public notice or opportunity to comment on their permits,’
Sierra Club attorney Rebecca McCreary said in a statement about the Permian Highway project. ‘Nationwide Permit 12 allows for no public hearings or participation by the local communities before the Corps permits construction to start, nor is there public notice
or comment on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service permits allowing harm to the endangered species along the route.’” [E&E News,
5/1/20
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Dems Slam BLM Virtual Meetings On Chaco Drilling.
According to E&E News, “House Democrats are criticizing the Trump administration for moving forward during the pandemic with a resource management plan that could open land near the
Chaco Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico to potential oil and gas development. The Bureau of Land Management announced last night that it would hold four virtual public meetings in concert with the Bureau of Indian Affairs in May on the Farmington
Mancos-Gallup Resource Management Plan. BLM released a draft of the plan and an environmental impact statement to public comment in February. BLM acting chief William Perry Pendley said in a statement that the virtual meetings would increase the number of
people able to comment and cut the bureau’s carbon footprint. But in a statement today, House Natural Resources Chairman Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Vice Chair Deb Haaland (D-N.M.) said BLM’s preferred plan falls short of a promise last year from Secretary
David Bernhardt for a 10-mile protective buffer around the sacred Chaco Canyon. Bernhardt announced a deferral on leasing within the buffer for one year last May (Greenwire, May 31, 2019). Additionally, the Democrats said native communities were highly affected
by the pandemic and slammed Pendley for holding virtual meetings given the lack of internet connectivity in tribal areas of rural Arizona. ‘Secretary Bernhardt and Acting Director Pendley are using this crisis to hand our public lands over to the oil and gas
industry, and are silencing communities in the process,’ Grijalva said.” [E&E News,
4/30/20 (=)]
Chad Ellwood
Senior Research Associate
Climate Action Campaign
202.448.2877 ext. 119