Dutch Study Stresses Critical Opportunity for Europe to Cut Methane Emissions from Oil and Gas Operations

(NEW YORK, NY) A new study conducted in the European Union’s largest gas field (Groningen, Netherlands) found oil and gas emissions in the region are substantially higher than the Dutch inventory estimates. At the same time, the team of international scientists, which includes experts from Environmental Defense Fund, found lower methane leaks from production facilities than observed in North America, indicating that emission controls can be practical and effective when applied.

The study comes at a time when Groningen production is ramping down and the energy it supplies is being replaced, in part, by both imported and European-produced gas, where measured emissions data is lacking. The paper titled, “Methane emissions in the Netherlands: The Groningen field” was published today in Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene.
 
Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, and human-caused methane emissions account for 25 percent of today’s warming. The oil and gas industry, which has a significant presence in Europe, is one of the largest global sources of methane pollution. Reducing methane emissions from the global oil and gas industry is among the most immediate and most cost-effective solutions available to countries seeking ways to meet climate reduction goals. 
 
“The more we measure, the more clearly we see that emissions based on engineering estimates often underestimate emissions,” said Dr. Daniel Zavala-Araiza, co-author and international scientist with Environmental Defense Fund.
 
Groningen has historically supplied a significant portion of Europe’s natural gas. That supply is dwindling, as the Dutch government will cease production by 2030 and the field ramps down. The new study raises timely questions about how EU nations will fill supply gaps and whether those choices will exacerbate the union’s climate efforts. 
 
“The results beg important questions about the emissions profile of EU produced and imported gas,” said Drew Nelson, international affairs director at Environmental Defense Fund. “With Groningen supply dwindling, what will replace it? And to whatever extent gas remains a part of Europe’s energy mix, what policies will be in place to assure that the gas produced, delivered, or transported in Europe is free of methane emissions?” 

Dutch, American, and Swiss researchers sampled methane emissions from oil and gas facilities using airborne and ground-based techniques in Groningen between August and September 2016. The team included Aerodyne Research, Inc.; Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), a global environmental organization; Metair, a Swiss airborne research group; and TNO, the Netherland’s largest research and technology organization. Additional research is being done to better understand the policies that led to lower emissions in the Groningen and to extract insights that can improve practices in other oil-and-gas-producing regions around the world. 
 
EDF has organized an extensive and influential body of scientific work on methane, including a five-year, $20 million series of studies involving more than 140 researchers from over 40 institutions, examining every link in the U.S. oil and gas supply chain. The research, which has generated 35 peer-reviewed scientific papers, shows emissions are 60 percent higher than U.S. EPA estimates. Studies examining industry’s emissions in Canada further verify this occurrence.
 
EDF is engaged with ten oil and gas companies representing 20 percent of worldwide production that together formed the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI) around methane issues. EDF, OGCI, and the UN’s Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) are collaborating on a series of peer-reviewed studies to measure oil and gas methane emitted in key locations worldwide. Two studies already underway will look at methane from offshore activity in the North Sea and from nodes along Europe’sdistribution system that delivers gas across the continent.