Preprints
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2022-826
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2022-826
19 Jan 2023
 | 19 Jan 2023
Status: a revised version of this preprint was accepted for the journal ACP and is expected to appear here in due course.

Aircraft-based mass balance estimate of methane emissions from offshore gas facilities in the Southern North Sea

Magdalena Pühl, Anke Roiger, Alina Fiehn, Alan M. Gorchov Negron, Eric A. Kort, Stefan Schwietzke, Ignacio Pisso, Amy Foulds, James Lee, James L. France, Anna E. Jones, Dave Lowry, Rebecca E. Fisher, Langwen Huang, Jacob Shaw, Prudence Bateson, Stephen Andrews, Stuart Young, Pamela Dominutti, Tom Lachlan-Cope, Alexandra Weiss, and Grant Allen

Abstract. Atmospheric methane (CH4) concentrations have more than doubled since the beginning of the industrial age, making CH4 the second most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide (CO2). The oil and gas sector represent one of the major anthropogenic CH4 emitters as it is estimated to account for 22 % of global anthropogenic CH4 emissions. An airborne field campaign was conducted in April–May 2019 to study CH4 emissions from offshore gas facilities in the Southern North Sea with the aim to derive emission estimates using a top-down (measurement-led) approach. We present CH4 fluxes for six UK and five Dutch offshore platforms/platform complexes using the well-established mass balance flux method. We identify specific gas production emissions and emission processes (venting/fugitive or flaring/combustion) using observations of co-emitted ethane (C2H6) and CO2. We compare our top-down estimated fluxes with a ship-based top-down study in the Dutch sector and with bottom-up estimates from a globally gridded annual inventory, UK national annual point-source inventories, and with operator-based reporting for individual Dutch facilities. In this study, we find that all inventories, except for the operator-based facility-level reporting, underestimate measured emissions, with the largest discrepancy observed with the globally gridded inventory. Individual facility reporting, as available for Dutch sites for the specific survey date, shows better agreement with our measurement-based estimates. For all sampled Dutch installations together, we find that our estimated flux of (122.7 ± 9.7) kg h-1 deviates by a factor 0.7 (0.35–12) from reported values (183.1 kg h-1). Comparisons with aircraft observations in two other offshore regions (Norwegian Sea and Gulf of Mexico) show that measured, absolute facility-level emission rates agree with the general distribution found in other offshore basins despite different production types (oil, gas) and gas production rates, which vary by two orders of magnitude. Therefore, mitigation is warranted equally across geographies.

Magdalena Pühl et al.

Status: closed

Comment types: AC – author | RC – referee | CC – community | EC – editor | CEC – chief editor | : Report abuse
  • RC1: 'Comment on acp-2022-826', Anonymous Referee #1, 26 Mar 2023
  • CC1: 'Comment on acp-2022-826', Glen Thistlethwaite, 26 Apr 2023
  • RC2: 'Comment on acp-2022-826', Tim Butler, 28 Apr 2023
  • AC1: 'Comment on acp-2022-826', Magdalena Pühl, 01 Jul 2023

Status: closed

Comment types: AC – author | RC – referee | CC – community | EC – editor | CEC – chief editor | : Report abuse
  • RC1: 'Comment on acp-2022-826', Anonymous Referee #1, 26 Mar 2023
  • CC1: 'Comment on acp-2022-826', Glen Thistlethwaite, 26 Apr 2023
  • RC2: 'Comment on acp-2022-826', Tim Butler, 28 Apr 2023
  • AC1: 'Comment on acp-2022-826', Magdalena Pühl, 01 Jul 2023

Magdalena Pühl et al.

Magdalena Pühl et al.

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Latest update: 12 Oct 2023
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Short summary
In April–May 2019 we carried out an airborne field campaign in the Southern North Sea with the aim to study methane emissions of offshore gas installations. We determine methane emissions from elevated methane measured downstream of the sampled installations. We compare our measured methane emissions with estimated methane emissions from national and global annual inventories. As a result, we find inconsistencies of inventories and large discrepancies between measurements and inventories.
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