New partnerships formed between oil and gas companies and methane monitoring service companies show that the methane monitoring trend is gaining traction. In separate announcements, two new partnerships revealed their pro-active stances. Kuva Systems, a leader in continuous methane monitoring for the oil and gas industry, announced April 12 that it has deployed additional infrared cameras after a successful pilot program with Marathon Oil. Kuva is also announcing partnerships with Microsoft and Texas Tech University.
Meanwhile, LongPath Technologies, Inc., and Apache Corporation announced an expansion of their partnership for continuous methane emissions monitoring in the Permian Basin of Southeast New Mexico and Northwest Texas. Methane emissions from oil and gas are a recent focal point for global greenhouse gas mitigation initiatives. Today’s monitoring technology can be used by companies seeking to reduce methane emissions and meet environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals.
For Kuva’s part, that company’s platform is an image-based continuous methane monitoring system and is positioned to supplant older, less accurate, and more expensive methods of methane detection. Kuva’s solution enables upstream and midstream oil and gas companies to quickly identify leaks, and analyze and address the root cause of emissions.
“We’re thrilled to partner with leaders in business and academia like Marathon Oil, Microsoft, and Texas Tech to help deliver real environmental solutions. We now have the technology to help companies more quickly identify methane leaks by delivering actionable information, and we’re committed to helping our clients achieve their environmental goals,” said Stefan Bokaemper, CEO of Kuva Systems.
Kuva’s technology allows its customers to identify, analyze, and address operational issues faster and safer than with manual inspection visits. Traditionally, camera systems that provided continuous emissions monitoring would cost ten times what Kuva’s patented technology is offering customers.
Marathon Oil
In 2021, Marathon Oil piloted eight of Kuva’s methane imaging infrared cameras at its oil and gas production sites in the Permian Delaware Basin, Eagle Ford Shale, Williston Bakken Shale, and the SCOOP area of the Oklahoma Anadarko Basin. The company has since expanded to 10 additional cameras throughout its operational area. In January 2022, Marathon Oil committed to reducing its methane intensity 60 percent by 2025 and 80 percent by 2030 based on their current operations portoflio, relative to a 2019 baseline.
“We are excited to be an early adopter of Kuva’s solution,” said Dana Wood, Environmental Supervisor at Marathon Oil. “We believe that the technology, combined with our SCADA data, provides a more fulsome view of our operations and allows us to better understand and mitigate environmental impacts.”
Oilfield Technology Center (OTC) at Texas Tech University
The Oilfield Technology Center (OTC) at Texas Tech University has been conducting testing of the Kuva camera’s gas detection performance since September 2020, including testing to establish detection limits in preparation for upcoming EPA rules expected later this year. Located on 10 acres in Lubbock, Texas, in the Permian Basin, the OTC is a research and teaching facility with typical oilfield equipment including a full-scale working tank battery complete with processing equipment, providing a realistic field setting for emissions testing. Texas Tech’s lead investigator, Denny Bullard, has 40+ years upstream oil and gas production experience and retired from Pioneer Natural Resources as Senior VP Operations Services prior to joining Texas Tech faculty.
At LongPath, the partnership with Apache Corp. marks an expansion of their monitoring activity in the Permian Basin. LongPath is a leader in providing 24/7 real-time monitoring for methane leaks. Apache adopted the LongPath system in Fall of 2021 with the commissioning of several dozen sites, leading to reductions in emissions.
“At Apache, we are committed to reducing emissions and were looking for a technology that provided real-time monitoring and volume quantifications,” said Jessica Jackson, Vice President, Environment, Health and Safety. “LongPath’s technology provides our teams with the data needed to achieve meaningful emissions reductions while meeting global energy needs in more innovative and sustainable ways.”
LongPath Technologies’ networked monitoring solution provides wide-area coverage of many individual facilities with a single laser system. The laser system is placed in a central location, and eye-safe light is sent out over multi-mile pathways through the air. Small mirrors on monitored sites allow for quantified emission volumes for each site to be reported in real-time.
With the planned expansion, LongPath will provide real-time monitoring for approximately 60 Apache facilities across areas of the Permian.
“We are thrilled to be able to continue what has been a rewarding partnership on both sides,” said LongPath CEO Ian Dickinson. “In Apache, we have a partner who has focused on how to make continuous monitoring actionable and efficient. The Apache team’s emissions mitigation workflow represents a viable long-term solution for ingesting real-time emissions data and getting root cause analysis and fixes down to a science. We are looking forward to entering into this next phase with Apache.”
Kuva camera monitoring a Marathon Oil site
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