Neptune Energy today announced a scientific collaboration to test a new approach to measure oil and gas methane emissions from offshore oil and gas sites.
The hydrocarbon company will work with the American group, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), whose international researchers will evaluate advanced methods for quantifying offshore methane emissions, identify key sources and prioritise mitigation actions.
The team includes Scientific Aviation, a provider of airborne emissions sensing, and Texo DSI, a UK-based drone platform provider.
The study is due to start in July 2021 with initial results expected in October. The outcomes will be published in a scientific peer-reviewed paper in 2022.
“Methane is the primary component of natural gas and is a potent greenhouse gas,” said Neptune in a statement.
“To meet the Paris Agreement climate goals, methane emissions need to be reduced from production and throughout the gas value chain.
“State-of-the-art drone, aircraft and methane sensing technologies will be deployed on the Neptune-operated Cygnus platform in the UK Southern North Sea to provide a close-up view of operations typical of a North Sea offshore facility, such as gas separation, drying and compression technology, and flaring and venting.”
Neptune Energy’s VP operations Europe, Pete Jones, added that Neptune already had one of the lowest methane intensities in the sector, at 0.01%, compared with the industry average of 0.23%.
“But we want to go further and have set a target of net zero methane emissions by 2030.
“This study will help us identify where we need to take further action and how we can apply new measurement techniques across our global operated portfolio.”
Neptune is a member of the Oil and Gas Methane Partnership (OGMP) and is a signatory to OGMP’s new 2.0 framework, which aims to improve the reporting accuracy and transparency of methane emissions.
COMPANY DETAILS
Neptune Energy, founded in 2015 with funds from global investment firm The Carlyle Group and CVC Capital Partners, has operations across the North Sea, North Africa and Asia Pacific.
The company produced 144,000 net barrels of oil equivalent per day during 2019 and 2P reserves at 31st December 2019 of 633 million barrels of oil equivalent.
In February 2018, China Investment Corporation held 49% when Neptune acquired the worldwide upstream assets of ENGIE.
In May 2018, a $550 million offering of 6% senior notes widened our investor base to include a range of blue-chip bondholders.