By Rory Sweeney
EPA said rules it issued Thursday to reduce methane emissions from oil and gas development will raise wholesale natural gas prices by less than 1%, but the industry’s leading trade group warned the “unreasonable and overly burdensome” regulations could depress shale gas development.
The agency said the rules will cost a net $320 million annually through 2020, with a $390 million total cost reduced by $70 million in revenue from sales of methane now lost into the atmosphere. By 2025, the estimated total cost increases to $640 million, offset by gas sales of $110 million, for a net cost of $530 million. The estimates, in 2012 dollars, assume a price of $4/Mcf.
EPA estimated that the rules will reduce gas well drilling by about 0.% and production by about 0.03% between 2020 and 2025, compared to the baseline. The agency estimated wellhead prices for onshore lower-48 production will increase during that period by about 0.2% and net imports will rise by about 0.11%.
Reduced Innovation?
The American Petroleum Institute said the costs will be more than twice EPA’s estimate, pegging them at $806 million per year in 2025.
“It doesn’t make sense that the administration would add unreasonable and overly burdensome regulations when the industry is already leading the way in reducing emissions,” Kyle Isakower, API’s vice president of regulatory and economic policy, said in a statement. “Imposing a one-size-fits-all scheme on the industry could actually stifle innovation and discourage investments in new technologies that could serve to further reduce emissions.”
The new rules are designed to reduce fugitive methane emissions from compressor stations, gas processing plants and well sites, including fracking operations. The rules also cover pneumatic pumps and controllers, centrifugal compressors and reciprocating compressors. Well site compressors are exempt.
Monitoring
The rules — which cover new and modified operations — are stringent, requiring substantially greater monitoring and emissions control than before across all areas of the extraction and production process. Well sites will be required to conduct biannual monitoring using either an infrared camera or a vapor “sniffer” and must repair leaks within 30 days. Compressor stations must be quarterly. Natural gas processing plants are already checked this way for other emissions, but they now must include methane.
After fracking a well, operators will need to install equipment that separates gas from the fluid that flows back to the surface and collect or combust it. Wildcat, exploratory and low-pressure wells are required to have combustion devices but not the separation equipment.
Many of these operations were already regulated for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) — but not methane — under the 2012 New Source Performance Standards, which regulate pollutant emissions from new or modified sources. The new rules also include several edits to the NSPS, including how flares can be done, leak detection and repair, and monitoring and testing of storage-vessel control devices.
EPA said the rules are justified because the costs will be outweighed by “monetized climate benefits” of $360 million in 2020 and $690 million in 2025. Such benefits were calculated in relation to greehouse gas emissions only, but the agency said there will be additional benefits from the associated reductions in VOCs and HAPs.
Methane is second only to carbon dioxide in its overall contribution to global warming. A ton of methane traps 25 times as much heat in the atmosphere as the same amount of CO2 over a 100-year period.
The changes to the NSPS were released along with two other rules affecting the industry. One requires emissions reductions for operations on certain Native American lands. The other clarifies what equipment should be grouped together to calculate whether a site is a major or minor emissions source.
EPA estimates about 270 full-time equivalent workers will be needed to meet compliance. The agency estimates that will increase to about 1,800 in 2025.