American Oil and Gas Reporter - January 2019 - 122

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Institute's senior director of regulatory
and scientific affairs. "Americans have
the cleanest air in decades because, in
part, of the increased use of natural gas
to generate electricity, demonstrating that
environmental protection and economic
growth are not mutually exclusive."
Petroleum And Gas Data
Feldman points out the oil and gas industry has invested more than double the
next highest industry sector in zero- and
low-emissions technologies since 2000.
Across the United States, 2,253 facilities conducting petroleum and natural
gas systems activities, such as production,
gathering and boosting, transmission and
distribution, accounted for GHG emissions
of 284.0 million metric tons of carbon
dioxide equivalent (CO2e), representing
9.8 percent of all reported emissions.
EPA notes the petroleum and natural
gas systems is one of its more complex
source categories within the GHG reporting program because of the number
of emission sources covered, technical
complexity, variability in the calculation
methods used for a particular emission
source, and variability across facilities.
As a result, the agency says it expects
differences in reported emissions from
one facility to another.
The largest industry segment in petroleum and gas systems was onshore production, with 497 segments reporting total
emissions of 93.8 million metric tons
(MMT) of CO2e. Methane emissions totaled 44.0 MMT CO2e and carbon dioxide
emissions totaled 49.8 MMT, the agency
says. Combustion equipment (30.7 MMT)
and pneumatic devices (25.5 MMT) were
the top reported emission sources, followed
by associated gas venting and flaring
(10.5 MMT), miscellaneous equipment
leaks (7.8 MMT), atmospheric tanks (6.8
MMT) and other flare stacks (3.2 MMT).
According to EPA:
· The gathering and boosting sector
reported emissions of 75.0 MMT CO2e.
Natural gas processing accounted for
56.0 MMT, followed by gas transmission
compression (24.0 MMT) and gas distribution (13.0 MMT). EPA says the remaining segments accounted for 22.0
MMT CO2e.
· The 449 facilities reporting in the
natural gas processing sector reported a
total of 55.8 MMT CO2e, the agency
says, with methane emissions of 3.1
MMT and CO2 emissions totaling 52.7
MMT CO2e. The top reported emission
sources are combustion equipment (37.6
MMT), acid gas removal units (11.3
MMT) and other flare stacks (4.1 MMT).
· The 529 gas transmission compression facilities totaled 24.2 MMT CO2e,

with methane emissions totaling 3.8 MMT
and CO2 emissions of 20.3 MMT. Combustion emissions were larger than process
emissions, EPA notes. Following combustion equipment, the top reported emissions sources were reciprocating compressors (1.5 MMT CO2e) and blowdown
vent stacks (1.3 MMT).
· The gas transmission pipeline segment reported one emission source, blowdown vent stacks, with 33 facilities reporting
emissions of 2.6 MMT CO2e in 2017.
· The EPA received reports from 48
facilities in the underground gas storage
segment, with reported emissions totaling
1.5 MMT. Combustion equipment
(800,000 metric tons) was the top reported
source of emissions, followed by reciprocating compressors (500,000 MT).
In the offshore production sector,
EPA received reports from 141 facilities
that totaled 7.0 MMT CO2e. The agency
points out those facilities calculate process

emissions using requirements established
by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. The top reported sources for offshore
production come from combustion (5.0
MMT) and venting (1.0 MMT).
According to EPA, the largest change
in reported emissions from year to year
occurred from 2015 to 2016, and is generally attributable to adding two industry
segments in 2016. Other changes in reported emissions come from a number
of factors, such as changes in the number
of facilities, operational changes (such
as increased flaring), calculation changes,
and changes in the reporting landscape,
including new industry segments and new
emissions sources within existing industry
segments, including oil well workovers
and workovers with hydraulic fracturing.
Total reported emissions increased 1.5
percent between 2015 and 2016, while
the number of facilities reporting dropped
0.1 percent, the agency notes.
r

'Keep It In The Ground' Costs
In The Billions, Chamber Says
WASHINGTON-The anti-energy
movement's "Keep it in the Ground"
campaign has blocked at least $91.9
billion in domestic economic activity and
eliminated nearly 730,000 job opportunities, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's
Global Energy Institute calculates. In addition, it estimates that federal, state and
local governments have missed out on
more than $20.0 billion in tax revenues.
GEI says its report, Infrastructure
Lost: Why America Cannot Afford to
'Keep in in the Ground,' quantifies the
impacts of delayed or cancelled energy
infrastructure projects that would enhance
American consumers' access to abundant,
affordable energy and provide hundreds
of thousands of good-paying jobs. The
group says activists work to derail those
projects by filing lawsuits, organizing
protests and even vandalizing private
property with the goal of delaying or
stopping them.
"The anti-energy movement's opposition to vital energy infrastructure comes
with a real cost: lost job opportunities
and billions in prevented domestic energy
activity," assesses Karen Harbert, the institute's president and chief executive officer. "America's newfound status as a
global energy superpower has created
opportunities here at home and around
the world, but in order to harness our
abundant natural resources and innovation,
we must have adequate infrastructure.

122 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER

Unfortunately, a small but vocal group
of activists is waging fights against these
projects around the nation."
Conservative Estimates
The anti-energy campaign against reliable power sources-coal, natural gas
and oil-also continues to target the infrastructure, including pipelines and transportation networks, power plants and
transmission lines, export facilities and
other structures, needed to produce and
move that energy, GEI says.
Infrastructure Lost points out these
protest campaigns incur significant costs:
Canceled power plants mean fewer job
opportunities for blue-collar workers and
potential challenges for electric reliability;
pipelines not built mean higher energy
prices, as residents in the Northeast discover every winter; delaying or altogether
blocking energy infrastructure means
foregone tax revenues that would pay for
public services, schools, emergency response workers and roads.
While the media has reported on these
efforts for years, GEI says their aggregate
economic impact has not been calculated
until now. Infrastructure Lost examines
15 energy infrastructure and investment
opportunities that were blocked, cancelled
or delayed because of the Keep it in the
Ground (KIITG) movement.
"Importantly, with the exception of
two projects that would not have begun

American Oil and Gas Reporter - January 2019

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