Page 26: of Offshore Engineer Magazine (May/Jun 2023)

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FEATURE DECARBONIZATION

Top down or bottom up, new technologies are helping the industry boost their leak detection and repair (LDAR) strategies.

By Wendy Laursen s the world approaches 1.5°C, the presumed producing platforms in the UK North Sea.

threshold of dangerous warming, action to re- Estimates of methane emissions based on satellite data duce methane releases is seen to be a way of buy- are already known to be imprecise offshore where refec- ing time for achieving longer term CO2 cuts. tions from the surrounding water can impact the readings,

A

However, as ABS points out in its recent Sustainability but that is changing. In 2022, Chevron partnered in a pi-

Insights paper, current emissions estimates may be under- lot to test GHGSat satellite technology developed for off- reporting the truth. Princeton University and Colorado shore environments. Subsequently, GHGSat detected what

State University researchers concluded that fve times more was the smallest offshore methane emission ever seen from methane is being leaked than reported from oil and gas space. It was observed at an oil and gas platform in the Gulf of Mexico and measured at approximately 1,500 kg/hr.

According to Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI) 2021 performance data, venting and fugitive leaks account for over 60% of aggregate upstream methane emissions. Therefore,

LDAR continues to be an industry priority, and new tech- nologies are improving leak detection and quantifcation.

Texas-based Seekops has developed a miniature meth- ane spectrometer which is mounted on drones for offshore methane detection analysis. Based on NASA technology used on the Mars Curiosity rover, it can detect methane con- centrations down to 10 parts per billion, pinpoint sources and quantify emissions as low as 20g/hr using wind data in its algorithms. Testing has demonstrated accurate quantif- cation of emissions offshore to less than 10% uncertainty.

The drones operate around 20 meters downwind from a facility, pinpointing particular sources, such as gas turbine exhaust streams, on different levels within the platform.

Chevron partnered in a pilot to test GHGSat satellite technology developed for offshore environments.

GHGSat 26 OFFSHORE ENGINEER OEDIGITAL.COM