Mobile measurement of methane emissions from natural gas developments in northeastern British Columbia, Canada

Atherton, Emmaline; Risk, David; Fougère, Chelsea; Lavoie, Martin; Marshall, Alex; Werring, John; Williams, James P.; Minions, Christina

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-12405-2017

Articles | Volume 17, issue 20

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-12405-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-12405-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 17, issue 20

Research article

|

19 Oct 2017

Research article |

| 19 Oct 2017

Mobile measurement of methane emissions from natural gas developments in northeastern British Columbia, Canada

Emmaline Atherton, David Risk, Chelsea Fougère, Martin Lavoie, Alex Marshall, John Werring, James P. Williams, and Christina Minions

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Final revised paper (published on 19 Oct 2017)
Preprint (discussion started on 07 Apr 2017)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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- Supplement

RC1: 'Review: acp-2017-109', Anonymous Referee #2, 10 May 2017
- AC2: 'Author Response to Referee #2', Emmaline Atherton, 30 Jul 2017
RC2: 'Review of Mobile measurements of methane emissions from natural gas developments in Northeastern British Columbia, Canada', Anonymous Referee #3, 11 May 2017
- AC3: 'Author Response to Referee #3', Emmaline Atherton, 30 Jul 2017
RC3: 'Review of Atherton et al.', Anonymous Referee #1, 11 May 2017
- AC4: 'Author Response to Referee #1', Emmaline Atherton, 30 Jul 2017
SC1: 'Reference to Omara et al 2016', Brian Crosland, 30 May 2017
- AC5: 'Author Response to Brian Crosland', Emmaline Atherton, 30 Jul 2017
SC2: 'Comments from the British Columbia Oil and Gas Commission', Tony Wakelin, 02 Jun 2017
- AC6: 'Author Response to Tony Wakelin', Emmaline Atherton, 30 Jul 2017
AC1: 'Final Response', Emmaline Atherton, 15 Jul 2017

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

AR by Emmaline Atherton on behalf of the Authors (31 Jul 2017) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Reconsider after minor revisions (Editor review) (14 Aug 2017) by Delphine Farmer

AR by Emmaline Atherton on behalf of the Authors (24 Aug 2017) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (07 Sep 2017) by Delphine Farmer

AR by Emmaline Atherton on behalf of the Authors (07 Sep 2017)

Short summary

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, and leaks from natural gas infrastructure are thought to be a significant emission source. We used a mobile survey method to measure GHGs near Canadian infrastructure. Our results show that ~ 47 % of active wells were emitting. Abandoned and aging wells were also associated with emissions. We estimate methane emissions from this development are just over 111 Mt year⁻¹, which is more than previous government estimates, but less than similar studies in the US.