Ohio gas well blowout leaked more than many countries do in a year, Ars Technica
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Put a lid on it –
Data from new satellite shows the accident should have gotten more attention.
Scott K. Johnson –Dec (************************************************************************, **************************************** (2:) ************************************************************************ (UTC UTC)
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The study, led bySudhanshu Pandeyat the SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, utilized measurements from ESA’s newSentinel-5P satellite. Although it wasn’t quite officially operational at the time of the accident, the researchers were able to grab data. Unfortunately, although the leak went on for 30 days, there was too much cloud cover to use the data on all but two of those days.
The data, however, is quite good, as this satellite can deliver methane measurements at much higher resolution (about 7 kilometer) than others. The researchers were able to compare against days before the leak and also to compare the levels from upwind and downwind of the leaking well. They also used a simulation including the weather conditions on those days, calculating what the methane plume would look like for different rates of release.********Enlarge
Pandey et al / PNASThey estimated the rate of methane release at (±metric tons per hour. If you don’t know gas well methane leakage rates off the top of your head, that’s a lot. Estimated leakage rates from entire natural gas fieldsin the US — like the Haynesville Shale straddling the Texas / Louisiana border or the Uinta Basin in northeastern Utah — come in lower than that.
To calculate a total for the entire 20 – day release, the researchers use that as their average. That probably underestimates it, though, as the measurement comes two weeks in. You would expect the emissions to start higher and drop as the pressure declines. Using these numbers, the total release is (***********************************************************************, ****************************************************************************** (±**********************************************, 10 tons. The 2018 accident in California — thesecond biggestrecorded methane leak ever in the US — released about (*******************************************************************, ******************************************************************************** tons.
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