Evan Sherwin

Energy & climate researcher focusing on methane emissions, carbon dioxide removal. Research Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. Opinions are my own.

[Evan Sherwin @EvanDSherwin]

@MikeUmbro @carbonmapper I'd love to! Feel free to shoot me an email at [email protected] to chat in more detail.

[Evan Sherwin @EvanDSherwin]

Thanks for the shoutout, @JesseJenkins!
I’ll do my best to weigh in here on the different threads in this important discussion (anyone involved, feel free to ping me if there’s anything I missed or if there are follow-up questions).
[1/N]

[Jesse D. Jenkins @JesseJenkins]

New study led by @evandsherwin in @NatureEnergyJnl compiles data from nearly one million aerial measurements of methane leaks across major US oil & gas basins, finds leakage ranges from 0.75% in the Marcellus to 9.6% in the Permian. The six-region weighted average is 2.95%, ~3x the rate in EPA's national GHG inventory https://t.co/GAE5Q9V99t

[Evan Sherwin @EvanDSherwin]

@MikeUmbro @carbonmapper Our simulations actually appear to be working better than I had expected them to in most cases. The SI, Section S1.2.2 goes into more detail. DM me if access is an issue.

[Evan Sherwin @EvanDSherwin]

@MikeUmbro @carbonmapper Based on my work with these datasets so far, I would say ~30 m, maybe less. Even at 100 m, that should be enough to differentiate ag from oil and gas.

I'll need to dig more into the CA GHGI before I can comment in detail.

[Evan Sherwin @EvanDSherwin]

@JesseJenkins my guess is that higher Permian emissions are rooted, as you say, in the fact that producers’ main focus is oil production. Gas pipelines were definitely at or near capacity for a good chunk of 2019, with negative prices at times.
https://t.co/Yg9wEidRpH
[15/N]

[Jesse D. Jenkins @JesseJenkins]

Is part of the reason methane leaks are so high in the Permian that the basin has faced gas pipeline constraints to date? It's an oil focused play and they're already shoving as much associated gas into pipelines as they can, so dont care much about reducing leaks beyond that?

[Evan Sherwin @EvanDSherwin]

Thanks for sharing the NPC report, @RichardMeyerDC. I look forward to reading it. Let me know if there are particular sections you suggest I focus on.
https://t.co/RfNHsobmwP
[14/N]

[Richard Meyer @RichardMeyerDC]

The methods and nuance employed in the NPC study on natural gas system methane emissions should be applied here. NPC addresses issues like top down (which this study is) versus bottom up. And it has describes various sophisticated methods for incorporating these data into broader lifecycle emissions analysis. https://t.co/QYFBbiSIQs

My view is this basin average oil and gas methane emissions rate of 2.95% is a not a reasonable number to use for natural gas system emissions intensities. But the underlying data could be used to arrive at better lifecycle analysis values for natural gas system methane intensities.

[Evan Sherwin @EvanDSherwin]

And of course huge thanks to the Stanford Natural Gas Initiative, @StanfordEnergy, for ensuring I had the funding needed to do this!
[25/N]

[Evan Sherwin @EvanDSherwin]

What do you get when you analyze data from the largest methane measurement endeavor in the history of the oil and gas industry?
Find out in my new paper in @Nature!
https://t.co/uCjr9vcE6c
[1/N]

[Evan Sherwin @EvanDSherwin]

@StanfordEnergy @berkeleylab @KairosAerospace @CarbonMapper @NASAJPL @uarizona @arvindpawan1 @EnvDefenseFund @tlaval_pa @RockyMtnInst @MiQ_Org @HighwoodTeam @ClimateChangeAI @LuminaAnalytica
[24/N]