1/2 of methane emissions in U.S. come from low-producing oil and gas wells, which EPA may not regularly monitor

"Low-producing oil and gas wells are to blame for roughly half of the methane emitted from all U.S. well sites, despite making up 6 percent of the country’s total production, according to new research published this week," Carlos Anchondo reports for Energy & Environment News. "The study, published in Nature Communications, is the first comprehensive look at low-production well-site emissions nationwide, researchers said. The paper found that low-producing or 'marginal' wells emit methane at a rate 6 to 12 times higher than the national average — releasing some 4 million metric tons of the potent greenhouse gas a year."

But the draft methane rules released by the Environmental Protection Agency in November say smaller wells don't have to be regularly monitored. That's a mistake, according to lead author Mark Omara, a scientist with the Environmental Defense Fund. There are about half a million low-producing wells in the U.S., he said, and they have the same environmental impact as 88 coal-fired power plants. "Omara said methane emissions from low-producing well sites can come from sources that are common throughout oil and gas operations, including both intentional vented emissions as well as unintentional emissions like those from equipment malfunctions," Anchando reports. "Marginal wells produce less than 15 barrels of oil equivalent per day, according to the study."

Petroleum lobbyists and sympathetic regulators have protested that regulating marginal wells will be overburdensome to operators, but EDF says its research found that about 75 percent of marginal wells are owned by large companies with ample resources, Anchando reports.