The oil and gas industry is pushing LNG as a “bridge fuel” that will slash global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by replacing coal as a combustible fuel source. Unfortunately, the existing gas production and delivery system releases a massive amount of methane — nearly 120 megatonnes globally each year. We’re being led to believe it’s possible to eliminate all that wasted methane, but this could be another false promise from an industry that has fooled us too many times.  

Teresa Patry is a generational farmer, born on the property she now works just outside Vermillion, Alta. Patry and her family make a living raising cattle, sheep and goats. They also have two oil wells in the home quarter that have been venting methane for years. Despite multiple complaints about petrochemical smells and health problems, the Alberta Energy Regulator is allowing the wells on Patry’s farm to continue operating without mitigation.

Methane — a greenhouse gas with 80 times the warming potential of CO2 — isn’t visible to the naked eye, so it wasn’t until an investigator from Oilfield Witness showed up with gas sensing camera equipment that Patry learned just how much gas was spewing from the wells a short distance from her home. “When he pointed the camera and told me to have a look at this, it was difficult to hold it together.”

Justin Mikulka from Oilfield Witness explains that for decades nothing has been done to avoid gas venting because, in many cases, the potential revenues from capturing, transporting and processing the gas don’t justify the capital expense required to build this infrastructure. “The industry in the US and Canada has made it very clear that they do not care about climate or the environment if it cuts into profits.” Clearly there isn’t much concern for the well-being of rural families either.

Controlled and uncontrolled venting of methane happens on a grand scale in Alberta. It comes........

© National Observer