Assessing Methane Emissions From the Natural Gas

Industry: Reviewing the Case of China in a

Comparative Framework
Xi Yang, Yiying Gao, Mingzhe Zhu, Cecilia Springer

To cite this version:

Xi Yang, Yiying Gao, Mingzhe Zhu, Cecilia Springer. Assessing Methane Emissions From the Natural
Gas Industry: Reviewing the Case of China in a Comparative Framework. Current Climate Change
reports, 2022, 8 (4), pp.115-124. �10.1007/s40641-022-00187-5�. �hal-03955159�

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Current Climate Change Reports (2022) 8:115–124
https://doi.org/10.1007/s40641-022-00187-5

ENHANCING THE USABILITY OF CLIMATE SCIENCE AND KNOWLEDGE FOR ACTION

(E GILMORE AND K SCHMITT, SECTION EDITORS)

Assessing Methane Emissions From the Natural Gas Industry:

Reviewing the Case of China in a Comparative Framework
Xi Yang1 · Yiying Gao2 · Mingzhe Zhu3 · Cecilia Springer4

Accepted: 4 October 2022 / Published online: 18 October 2022

© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022

Abstract
Purpose of Review The aim of this paper is to explore methane emissions from China’s fossil fuel industry compared with
the USA and Canada, with a focus on the methane emission mechanisms, calculation methods, mitigation potential, and
abatement technologies.
Recent Findings This paper explores the methane emissions from China’s natural gas industry from a comparative perspec-
tive. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) methane emissions from the natural gas production phase are the largest in the
whole natural gas supply chain. (2) When it comes to measurement and estimation methods, methane emissions in the gas
industry in the USA and Canada typically achieve a Tier 3 level, while China tends to be at the Tier 1 and Tier 2 levels. (3)
There is large mitigation potential for methane emissions from the natural gas industry. More effective waste reduction tech-
nologies like green well completion should be implemented in the production phase, especially in China. At the same time,
more attention should be drawn to the need for leakage detection technologies of pipelines in all countries compared here.
Summary As a large methane-emitting country, China lags behind the USA and Canada in methane emission reduction.
Therefore, Chinese scientists, policy makers, and entrepreneurs should pay attention to methane emissions. Stakeholders
should enhance mitigation measures and leakage detection technologies in order to achieve climate targets.

Keywords Methane emissions · Natural gas industry · Mitigation potential · Comparative analysis

Introduction carbon dioxide (­ CO2) emitter, China has specifically stated

a goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2060 [3]. However,
Many countries are aiming to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas in addition to carbon dioxide, other key GHGs such as meth-
(GHG) emissions, often called carbon neutrality, in the next ane will require people’s attention in order to achieve a 1.5 °C
few decades. The European Union (EU) aims to achieve its warming scenario. In the past 20 years, global methane emis-
net-zero emissions target by 2050 [1]. The USA also aims to sions have increased by 10% [4]. Although, compared to
achieve net-zero emissions no later than 2050 [2]. As the top carbon dioxide, methane has a lower concentration [5] and
a shorter atmospheric lifetime [6], the 20-year global warm-
This article is part of the Topical Collection on Enhancing the ing potential of methane is 85 times that of carbon dioxide
Usability of Climate Science and Knowledge for Action [7]. Therefore, scientists call on all countries to take neces-
sary measures to control methane emissions in order to better
* Xi Yang deal with global warming [8]. The USA and the European
[email protected]
Union took the lead in cooperation and led a Global Methane
1
Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, John Pledge—more than 100 countries will reduce total methane
A, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA emissions by at least 30% by 2030 compared with 2020 [9,
2
China University of Petroleum, Beijing, Beijing 102249, 10]. As one of the main sources of methane emissions [5], the
China natural gas industry needs special attention in reducing emis-
3
University of Antwerp, 2000 Antwerp, Belgium sions. In 2020, the top five natural gas–producing countries
4
Global Development Policy Center, Boston University,
in the world were the USA, Russia, China, Iran, and Canada
Boston, MA 02215, USA [11]. China’s economy has developed rapidly in recent years.

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116 Current Climate Change Reports (2022) 8:115–124

Its GDP in 2020 was second only to the USA, but far higher emissions in the production phase [22, 23], while China has
than Canada’s [12]. However, China is the top emitter of the highest proportion in the distribution phase [24]. Emis-
methane, with higher emissions and a different structure of sion quantification methods for each phase are summarized
energy-related emissions compared to the USA and Canada. in Fig. 1. China, the USA, and Canada also differ in total
There is a rich body of literature on methane emissions in the methane emissions and methane emission quantification
USA and Canada, and the results show that field measure- approaches. The fundamental reason for these differences
ment results of methane emissions from natural gas are gener- is that the energy consumption structure of these countries
ally higher than the data published in national greenhouse gas is different. Therefore, the study of methane emissions in the
emission inventories [5, 13]. If the methane emissions in the natural gas industry needs to start with energy structure as
natural gas industry are not well characterized, this will inhibit it relates to tradeoffs between gas and other energy sources,
national GHG mitigation strategies and regulations. Unfortu- such as coal.
nately, there are few studies assessing methane emissions in If it is to be a bridge fuel for energy transition, natural gas
China’s natural gas industry relative to the USA and Canada, must have minimal emissions. Therefore, based on research
due to differences in natural gas resource endowment and the on the current state of methane emissions and methane emis-
accounting methods for methane emissions [14, 15]. Recently, sion quantification, this paper discusses the methane emis-
the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) was released, high- sion reduction potential of the natural gas industry from both
lighting the need for methane emission reduction and showing policy and technology perspectives.
that methane emission reduction in the oil and gas industry
is the fastest and most economical mitigation measure [16].
This paper aims to review and summarize the limited studies International Comparison
on methane emissions from China’s fossil fuel industry from
a comparative perspective, to provide readers with a compre- Studies cited in this paper are mainly from the databases
hensive understanding of the challenges and opportunities for of ScienceDirect, Springer, Taylor & Francis, and Google
methane mitigation to achieve climate and sustainability goals. Scholar. We focused on 210 key studies, including 60 papers
about the USA, 55 about Canada, and 35 related to China,
with the rest involving policy briefs, reports, etc. Eighty-
Conceptual Framework nine representative and most recent references are cited in
this review paper. Compared to the USA and Canada, China
Methane emissions from natural gas systems can generally has much less research on methane emissions from the natu-
be divided into three categories: vented emissions, fugi- ral gas industry. Therefore, we try to answer the following
tive emissions, and incomplete combustion emissions [17]. three questions to fill this gap from a comparative perspec-
Among these, vented emissions are intentionally released, tive: first, what is the methane emission situation in China’s
and fugitive emissions are unintentionally released from natural gas industry? Second, what is the current research
equipment [18]. Incomplete combustion emissions refer to progress on natural gas methane emissions in China? Finally,
fuel contained in waste gas from natural gas combustion what are the relevant efforts to mitigate methane emissions
[17]. These methane emissions occur in all phases of the in China, including policies and technologies? This study
natural gas supply chain, including production, processing, tries to use the most recent research and evidence to provide
transmission, and distribution. the audience with answers to these questions.
In addition, specific phases have specific quantitative First, the proportion of methane emissions from the natu-
methods for estimating emissions. In the production, gath- ral gas industry out of total methane emissions is higher in
ering, and processing phase, the Gaussian dispersion method the USA and Canada than in China. According to relevant
[17, 19] and Monte Carlo simulation [17, 20] can be used. research, in 2019, the methane emissions of the US oil and
That is, the methane concentration in the selected study area gas industry accounted for 30% of total methane emissions
is first determined, then plugged in to a dispersion model or [22], of which about 74% comes from the production, gath-
random model to estimate the methane leakage rate [19, 20]. ering, and processing of natural gas [22]. In 2018, 43% of
When the methane leakage rate is known, it can also be com- Canada’s total methane emissions came from the oil and gas
bined with activity data, and then Monte Carlo iteration can industry [25]. In 2014, 89.40% of China’s methane emis-
be carried out to estimate the methane emissions [21]. For sions came from fugitive emissions, of which oil and gas
the transmission and distribution phase, emissions can be systems only accounted for 5.10% of the total fugitive emis-
measured directly at the component level [17]. According to sions [26].
the final calculation results, the proportion of methane emis- The main reason for these differences is that the overall
sions by phase in China, the USA, and Canada are different: proportion of methane emissions from the oil and gas indus-
the USA and Canada have the largest proportion of methane try is restricted by the national energy structure. In 2020, the

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Current Climate Change Reports (2022) 8:115–124 117

Fig. 1  Framework of methane emissions and quantification methods in natural gas systems

proportion of natural gas consumption in primary energy emissions from abandoned coal mines around the world by
consumption in the USA and Canada was 34.12% and setting emission reduction scenarios with different intensi-
29.71% [11], respectively. China is a coal-dominant coun- ties [30]. The results show that compared to 2010 (when the
try, with coal representing the highest proportion of any fuel emissions from abandoned coal mines accounted for 17%
in primary energy consumption, at about 56.56%, while the of the total methane produced by coal mining), the share of
proportion of natural gas consumption is only 8.20% [11]. abandoned coal mine emissions will increase in all scenarios
As a result, compared with the USA and Canada, the propor- in the future [30]. Therefore, compared with the USA and
tion of methane emissions from China’s natural gas indus- Canada, China’s coal mine methane emission problem is
try is relatively small. However, due to the large amount of more serious than emissions from the natural gas system.
coal consumption and production in China and the lack of Especially after the introduction of China’s coal cap policy
effective utilization of coalbed methane, coal mining has [31, 32], the problem of methane emissions will become
become the largest methane emission source in China. In relatively more serious. On one hand, the abandoned coal
2014, the methane emission from coal mines in China was mines will increase methane emissions; on the other hand,
21,010 kt, accounting for 38% of total methane emissions with natural gas replacing coal as an energy source, there
in China [27]. In 2016, China’s coal mine methane emis- will likely be more methane problems from gas in China in
sions increased to 22,690 kt, of which underground min- the future. Therefore, the relative amount of methane emis-
ing, post-mine activities, open-pit mining, and abandoned sions in the natural gas industry is highly related to other
mines accounted for 83%, 13%, 3%, and 1% respectively methane emission sources like coal mining. Thus, to have a
[28]. In contrast, the total methane emissions from coal better understanding of the full picture, the energy structure
mines in the USA and Canada are much smaller than those and fuel replacement scenarios in China should be further
in China, but the proportion of methane emissions from studied, in addition to the main methane emission processes.
abandoned coal mines is larger than that in China. In 2019, Secondly, in the natural gas industry in China, the USA,
the methane emission from coal mines in the USA was 1895 and Canada, the methane emissions from each phase are
kt (abandoned coal mines accounted for 12.50%) [22], and also very different. Figure 1 contains a detailed comparison
the fugitive emission from coal mines in Canada was 56 kt of emissions from different phases of natural gas systems
(abandoned coal mines accounted for 4.30%) [29]. There- in China, the USA, and Canada in recent years. These data
fore, the methane emissions from abandoned coal mines can- are obtained by high-resolution inversion using atmospheric
not be ignored. Some scholars have estimated the methane methane observations [24, 33], and the standard deviation

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and uncertainty range of the results are in brackets. Although pneumatic controllers and equipment [37]. The main dis-
this improves the estimation of methane emissions to some charge source in the processing phase is the compressor
extent, this method is vulnerable to the accuracy of emission [22]. Leakage of methane from the compressor station and
inventory data [33]. Data for China, the USA, and Canada exhaust from the pneumatic controller are the main causes
for all phases of the natural gas supply chain are taken from of emissions during transmission [22]. Methane emissions
two studies [24, 33]. These data are easily affected by the during distribution are of high risk of leakage [15, 17]. Spe-
objective difference in approaches to methane quantifica- cial attention should also be paid to the problem of pipe-
tion in each country, and the subjective factors chosen in line leakage during this phase, which depends on the age
the study. Therefore, when comparing methane emissions and material of the pipeline: the leakage rate of older cast
between countries, we consider the range of error and uncer- iron pipes is the highest [38, 39]. This will not only cause
tainty. Obviously, from the perspective of emission structure, waste of resources and environmental pollution, but also
methane emissions from the USA and Canada are mainly endanger the safety of human life and property. Natural gas
concentrated in the production and processing phase, while pipeline accidents in the USA alone cause 17 deaths and
China is dominated by the distribution phase. In terms of $133 million in property losses every year [40]. Therefore,
emission values, the emissions of the USA and Canada in it is very important to strengthen emission detection for old
the production and processing phase and transmission phase pipelines and gradually replace them with protected steel
are much larger than those of China. The reason for this dif- pipes and plastic pipelines to solve the problem. The USA
ference may be that the production and consumption struc- took the lead in such efforts: by the end of 2020, about 97%
ture of natural gas and the basic situation of pipelines are of natural gas transmission pipelines were made of plastic or
different across these countries. First, the inversion analysis steel, and iron pipes accounted for only 3% [41]. However,
of China, the USA, and Canada is based on the national methane leakage is not only related to the age and mate-
emission inventories from before 2016 [24, 33]. Before rial of the pipeline, but is also positively correlated to the
2016, China’s natural gas production was lower than that of operating pressure of the pipeline [39]. Therefore, given the
the USA and Canada [11]. Moreover, in 2012, the proportion increasing demand for natural gas, solving the relationship
of shale gas in total natural gas production in the USA and between methane leakage and pipeline operation pressure
Canada reached 39% and 15%, respectively, but less than 1% is an important issue in the future of the distribution phase.
in China [34]. Due to hydraulic fracturing and other reasons,
the methane emissions from shale gas production are at least
30% higher than for traditional natural gas [35]. Therefore,
the USA and Canada emit more methane in the production Methane Emission Measurement
and processing phase than China. Second, gas pipelines in and Estimation Methodologies
the USA and Canada are much longer and older than those in
China. The length of gas transmission pipelines in the USA In order to quantify the methane emissions in natural gas
reached 500,000 km in 2007, and 100,000 km in Canada in production and transmission, scholars have conducted many
2014 [23], while the total length of long-distance pipelines exploratory studies [15, 21, 37, 39]. Generally speaking, the
in China was only 77,000 km in 2017 [36]. Longer transmis- main research methods at present include atmospheric obser-
sion pipelines require more compressor stations [23]. The vation methods [42–45], emission factor estimation meth-
compressor station is the main cause of methane emissions ods [15, 46], Monte Carlo simulation methods [17, 20, 21],
in the transmission phase [22]. Therefore, the USA and F.E.M.S leakage management software calculation methods
Canada emit more methane during the transmission phase. [45, 47], and field detection [15, 18, 37, 39]. The calcula-
Third, compared to the USA and Canada, China’s natural gas tion methods for methane emissions can be divided into two
is more dependent on imports. Forty-two percent of China’s categories according to the top-down method and bottom-up
natural gas needs to be imported, including from countries method, or three categories according to Tier 1, Tier 2, and
like Turkmenistan, which has very high emissions per unit Tier 3. Among these, the top-down method refers to estimat-
of natural gas production [24]. Therefore, China’s high ing emissions within the region. The bottom-up approach is
methane emission in the distribution phase is likely to be used to estimate methane emissions from specific sectors,
affected by international trade. In short, there are large meth- facilities, etc. For the three-tier system, both Tier 1 and Tier
ane emissions in the natural gas supply chain. This means 2 quantify methane emissions based on emission factors.
that companies and countries will face serious challenges in The difference is that Tier 1 adopts IPCC factors and Tier 2
meeting their methane emission intensity targets. adopts region-specific emission factors. Tier 3 is the most
The difference between methane emissions in each phase accurate method for measuring methane emissions in the
is due to the differences in emission sources. Methane field. Tier 1 and Tier 2 can be classified as “bottom-up”
emissions during production mainly come from leakage of methods. Tier 3 includes both “top-down” methods such as

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Current Climate Change Reports (2022) 8:115–124 119

“aircraft mass balance method” and “bottom-up” methods include the aircraft mass balance method [25, 42, 43, 54] and
such as “point-to-point detection.” the remote sensing observation method [44, 45]. Researchers
Tier 1 is widely used in China. Most relevant greenhouse also use satellite data to determine methane emissions from
gas reports and scholarship are based on this method [15, 48, different sectors in the Bayesian reverse modeling frame-
49]. The emission factor method is also widely used in the work [55, 56]. China’s research methods are completely
national greenhouse gas inventories of the USA and Can- opposite to that of the USA and Canada, mainly using
ada, but Canada has added an additional reference to Tier bottom-up methods such as the Tier 1 and Tier 2 methods
3 to make the reporting data more accurate [50]. Although [57]. In addition, the research sites have been mainly con-
the emission factor method is the earliest and most basic centrated in single oil and gas fields in Sichuan and Chong-
method, more and more studies have proved that the esti- qing [14, 47, 53]. In particular, there are three main types of
mation results cannot accurately represent the actual value. research methods applied within Tier 2; the first type is the
The progress of production technology (such as the wide- formula method—that is, the field data is substituted into a
spread application of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal specific formula to measure the methane emissions in some
drilling) [19, 37] and the incompleteness of emission factor phases [58]; the second is the experimental method, which
and activity data [51] all make the results underestimate the determines the methane emissions of the specific phase by
actual values [13, 52]. However, some scholars argue that simulating different external conditions [53]; the third is
the method overestimates the actual value [53]. It could be the model method, which can study the methane emissions
that the results of an emission factor model do not consider of natural gas pipelines by establishing a small hole model
intermittent emissions [20]. Therefore, there is a certain lack [59]. Tier 3 is rarely used in China. In the early stages of
of accuracy in the method of estimating methane emissions methane emission estimation, Tier 3 approaches used the
using emission factors. Research should be expanded to Tier “point-to-point detection” in the bottom-up method. That
2 and Tier 3 levels to obtain more accurate measurement is, a methane leakage detector is used to detect the leakage
results. of different components [47] [53]. Now, a few studies have
At present, studies in the USA and Canada mainly use the begun to expand to top-down methods with the help of satel-
top-down method in Tier 3 [18, 38, 54]. They use aircraft lite observations [24]. The representative research methods
measurement [25, 37, 54], remote sensing technology [44, are shown in Table 1.
45], and vehicles equipped with measuring instruments to There may be several main reasons for the differences
measure methane emissions [38]. Based on these measure- in research methods between China, the USA, and Canada.
ments, proportion-based gas concentration technologies Firstly, the natural gas industry is not the main methane
are used to attribute the measured methane emission data emission source in China, so the number of relevant studies
to the relevant sources from the natural gas system [50, is small and relatively recent. Moreover, the early relevant
53]. Among these, the most widely used analysis methods research in China was mainly to detect leakage points in the

Table 1  Representative methods for methane quantification

Method Introduce References

Tier 1 Bottom-up Emission factor IPCC emission factor * activity data [49]
Tier 2 Bottom-up Emission factor Emission factor * activity data with regional characteristics [57]
Bottom-up Static calculation Set up calculation formulas by phase and sum up, and then aggregate [58]
them to the regional case for calculation (for gas stations)
Bottom-up Experimental Collect samples and simulate the methane emission rate in the laboratory [53]
according to the actual conditions. (for oilfield water)
Bottom-up Historical data deduction Collect the historical data of specific gas fields and calculate the methane [53]
emissions at this stage in combination with gas composition, number of
new gas wells and equipment
Bottom-up Small hole model Use numerical simulation of two-dimensional turbulence to calculate (for [59]
pipes)
Tier 3 Top-down Aircraft mass balance method Use methane enhancement between downwind and upwind sample zones [54]
to calculate the total methane flux and emission rate
Top-down Remote sensing observation method Collect methane concentration in the study area by satellite, and calculate [44]
the methane emissions by the mass balance method
Top-down Inversion method Using the spatial data captured by satellites, methane emissions are [24]
estimated via the Bayesian reverse modeling framework
Bottom-up Field detection Obtain emission data via methane emission detector [47]

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120 Current Climate Change Reports (2022) 8:115–124

natural gas transmission system. Therefore, the research sites reduction targets through legislation, and made specific
were mainly Sichuan and Chongqing gas fields because their requirements for methane emission reduction technologies
pipeline pinhole crack occurrence rate is high, at 54% [50]. including LDAR, green well completion, and replacement
Secondly, due to the limitation of technologies in China, of pneumatic devices (as shown in Table 1). In addition, it
detection could not be completed by means of aircraft and also actively provides financing for methane emission reduc-
remote sensing, so it mostly relied on manual estimation tion in the oil and gas sector at home [64]. China’s emphasis
methods. Therefore, for future research, far more research on methane emissions has also gradually increased. Since
on methane is needed at the national level in China. the Eleventh Five-Year Plan, policies related to methane
emission control have been enacted (as shown in Table 1).
Initially, these policies mainly regulated coal mining, includ-
Potential for Methane Emission Reduction ing increasing the intensity of coalbed methane explora-
tion and improving the utilization rate of coalbed methane.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) has indicated that Since China made the commitment to peak emissions by
it is feasible to reduce global methane emissions from the 2030 and be carbon neutral by 2060, China’s climate policy
oil and gas industry by 75%, and 2/3 of emission reductions has entered a new stage. In the Fourteenth Five-Year Plan
can be achieved at zero net cost in developing countries in released in 2021, China included methane in the greenhouse
Asia [60], by selling recovered methane to pay for emission gas control objectives for the first time, indicating that the
reductions. Therefore, as long as emission reduction meas- Chinese government has put methane emission reduction
ures are in place, the lower emission potential of natural gas on the agenda.
can be realized. This finding gives countries and enterprises In the new stage of addressing climate change, oil and gas
an incentive to reduce methane emissions. enterprises tend to be more willing to adopt methane emis-
In the field of methane emission reduction in the oil and sion controls. In the USA, oil and gas companies voluntarily
gas industry, the USA and Canada are at the forefront of the adopted emission reduction technologies to control methane
world. The USA has taken steps to implement policies to emissions [68]. This relationship then developed into the natu-
control methane emissions from the upstream, midstream, ral gas Star program, which promoted the sharing of meth-
and downstream segments of the oil and gas industry, and ane emission reduction technical information throughout the
put forward requirements for oil and gas enterprises to adopt industry and avoided methane emissions of more than 526
leak detection and repair (LDAR) technology in 2016 (as MMT ­CO2e [69]. These emission reductions were mainly
shown in Table 2). In addition, the Biden administration will achieved by expanding LDAR [70] and replacing high-exhaust
set up new regulatory measures for the oil and gas indus- equipment [71]. Chinese oil and gas enterprises have also
try to more strictly control methane emissions. Canada’s established a foundation in methane emission reduction, and
efforts in methane emission reduction have also been gradu- have made great breakthroughs in recent years. The oil and gas
ally strengthened. In 2017, it proposed methane emission enterprises built a light hydrocarbon recovery system [72] in

Table 2  Methane emission control policies in the USA, Canada, and China
Country Policy Year Key content Reference

USA New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) for VOC 2016 Supervise methane emissions in the upstream, mid- [61]
and methane emissions from the oil and gas sector stream, and downstream segments of the oil and gas
industry
CLEAN Future Act 2021 EPA is required to formulate laws and regulations regu- [62]
lating all phases of the oil and gas industry before 2023
Canada Regulations on reduction in the release of methane and 2017 LDAR is done three times a year; Green completion of [63]
certain volatile organic compounds (upstream oil and gas wells by 2020
gas sector)
Emission Reduction Fund 2020 $750 million to reduce methane emissions in the oil and [64]
gas sector
China Some opinions on accelerating the extraction and utiliza- 2006 Guidance of the State Council on strengthening the [65]
tion of coalbed methane (coal mine gas) utilization of coalbed methane and the control of coal
mine gas
Twelfth Five-Year Plan for development and utilization 2011 A target of 16 billion cubic meters of coal bed methane [66]
of coalbed methane (coal mine gas) surface development by 2015 has been set
Fourteenth Five-Year Plan and outline of long-term 2021 Putting methane under greenhouse gas control policies [67]
objectives for 2035

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Current Climate Change Reports (2022) 8:115–124 121

1992, and then used airtight seal detection technology to deal phases of the natural gas supply chain. This is closely related
with the emissions from oil casings in the process of oilfield to the energy consumption structure of each country and
production [73]. In recent years, oil and gas companies have methane emission sources. In terms of emission quantifica-
achieved more methane emission reduction by carrying out tion methods, China mainly uses Tier 1 and Tier 2 to quan-
LDAR pilot programs [74] and enhancing natural gas recov- tify methane emissions [48, 57–59]. There are relatively few
ery [75]. In addition, in order to further promote the process studies using Tier 3 [47, 53], and the research has mainly
of methane emission reduction, China’s domestic oil and gas been concentrated in specific oil and gas fields in Sichuan
enterprises have jointly established the methane emission and Chongqing [14, 47]. However, studies in the USA and
control alliance, which strives to reduce the average emission Canada have focused on the Tier 3 level [18, 38, 54]. More
intensity of methane in the process of natural gas production and more methane emissions are measured by aircraft,
to less than 0.25% by 2025 [76]. At the same time, as shown remote sensing, or vehicles equipped with measuring instru-
in Fig. 1, foreign enterprises have also set certain targets for ments [25, 38, 42–45]. The driving reason for the different
future methane emission intensity (the basic goal is to reduce emission levels and associated quantification processes is the
the methane emission intensity to 0.2% by 2025) [77–79]. difference in energy structure between countries.
Thus, enterprises’ awareness of methane emission reduction As a coal-dominated country, China’s coal mines repre-
measures has gradually increased. sent the largest source of domestic methane emissions [15,
Although countries have made significant efforts to 48]. In 2014, methane emissions from coal mines in China
reduce methane emissions, there are still some areas for accounted for 38% of the total methane emissions in China
improvement. In the USA, methane regulation has been [27], much larger than those in the USA and Canada. With
closely tied to political shifts. The Trump administration the “coal-to-gas” policy promotion [84, 85], natural gas is
rolled back regulations on methane emissions from the expected to play an important role in China’s coal replace-
production and processing phases, which hindered the ment process, at least as an important bridge fuel to renewa-
deployment of new emission reduction technologies [80]. bles in the short- and medium-term in China. The methane
In addition, the USA has thus far failed to mitigate meth- emissions from the natural gas industry should draw more
ane emissions from pneumatic devices, flares, etc. [81]. attention than before. Motivated by this gap, this paper has
The Biden government has made steps towards improving compared and analyzed the challenges and opportunities
methane emission regulation, but legislation is difficult to faced by China in methane emission control.
pass given the partisanship of climate-related policies in the Firstly, with a future increase in natural gas consump-
US Congress. China is actively promoting the formation of tion, methane emissions from production and transmission
a methane emission control system, but the current policy in China deserve further attention from researchers. Since
has not made specific requirements for emission reduction most studies are focused on a single gas mine or a single
technology. This may limit the efficiency of methane emis- region in China [14, 47], studies conducted at the national
sion reduction to a certain extent. In addition, some emission level will be an important reference for achieving China’s
reduction technologies in China are still in the pilot stage, climate objectives. Previous research on methane emissions
especially LDAR. At present, China mainly relies on hand- in the production phase was mainly completed with the help
held leakage detection methods [82, 83], supplemented by of handheld leakage detectors [14, 45, 47]. This method is
truck patrols [83], which require more labor and will greatly relatively simple, and future research can be expanded in
increase mitigation costs. In order to ensure that domestic the direction of diversification of detection technology. In
enterprises successfully achieve the goal of methane emis- addition, there are limitations in studies at the Tier 2 level.
sion intensity control, it is necessary for China to adopt low- The research sites only included gas transmission pipelines
cost LDAR. Therefore, while improving the methane emis- [59] and liquefied natural gas (LNG) filling stations [58].
sion control policy system, China should further encourage Therefore, in the future, the research scope can be expanded
market mechanisms and jointly establish a number of meth- through innovative modeling methods, and a list of methane
ane emission reduction demonstration projects with enter- emission factors suitable for China’s national conditions can
prises, especially with regard to deploying advanced leakage be established according to research data.
detection technology. Secondly, facing the huge pressure of reducing the
impacts of climate change, the world must make a break-
through in methane emission reduction technology as soon
Main Challenges and Future Prospects as possible. Because it has the highest methane emissions
from natural gas production, China can take the lead in
Methane emissions in the natural gas industry are a prob- achieving technological breakthroughs for methane emis-
lem that cannot be ignored. On the whole, China, the USA, sion reduction in the production phase. For the transmis-
and Canada have different methane emission profiles in all sion phase, China can further expand leakage detection

13
122 Current Climate Change Reports (2022) 8:115–124

technology. However, China is currently limited to short- 11. BP (2021).BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2021.https://​
range detection. Therefore, the joint development of multi- www.​bp.​com/​conte​nt/​dam/​bp/​count​r y-​sites/​zh_​cn/​china/​home/​
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Acknowledgements The authors acknowledge the detailed comments unknown: methane emissions from the oil and gas value chain.
and suggestions from Dr. Robert Kleinberg. His contribution helped CD Howe Institute e-Brief, 2019;288.https://​doi.​org/​10.​2139/​
improve the quality of this manuscript. ssrn.​33521​33
14. Hong Z, Su B. Investigation of methane leakage in natural gas
Funding We received funding support from the H2020 European Com- gathering system of East Sichuan gas field. Petroleum and natu-
mission Project “PARIS REINFORCE” (Grant No. 820846). ral gas chemical industry. 2000;02:100–1. https://​doi.​org/​10.​
3969/j.​issn.​1007-​3426.​2000.​02.​017 ((in Chinese)).
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Conflict of Interest All authors declare that there is no conflict of in- 2014;29:11–21. https://​doi.​org/​10.​1016/j.​rser.​2013.​08.​060.
terest. 16. IPCC(2021). AR6 climate change 2021: the physical science
basis. https://​www.​ipcc.​ch/​report/​sixth-​asses​sment-​report-​worki​
Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent This article does not ng-​group-i/
contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any 17. Lyon DR. Methane emissions from the natural gas supply chain.
of the authors. Environmental and Health Issues in Unconventional Oil and Gas
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