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Why is natural gas in oil and coal mines inevitable? The hidden reasons behind it!
In the global energy extraction and consumption, natural gas plays an important role as a source of energy, whether for heating, power generation or industrial use. However, with the exploitation of oil and coal, the emission of natural gas (mainly methane) has also become an environmental problem that cannot be ignored. Such natural gas emissions, especially intentional releases, are known as "gas emissions" or "methane emissions," and their impact on global climate change is gaining increasing attention.
Gas venting is a controlled release process, usually during oil or coal mining, because these processes produce large amounts of byproduct gases that cannot be practically reused or stored at the moment.
There are deep economic and technical factors behind the emission of natural gas. According to statistics, global data in 2012 showed that about 58% of associated petroleum gas was re-injected to maintain well pressure, 27% was sent to the consumer market, and 15% was still selectively discharged or burned. This emission not only leads to waste of resources, but also causes harm to the environment. Especially when conventional gas emissions and combustion are carried out, the carbon dioxide produced after combustion is still "less harmful" than the unburned methane.
In the oil and gas industry, methane emissions tend to be a major source of greenhouse gases, a fact confirmed by recent studies, especially at sites where heavy oil is extracted.
Looking back at the data, the global annual CO2 emissions from burning associated gas are equivalent to 1% of the total fossil fuel combustion release. As the international community pays more attention to climate change, natural gas emissions from pipeline transportation and distribution have also attracted much attention, especially in the United States, where most emissions occur at compression stations and gas conditioners. As technology develops, existing maintenance strategies and new equipment are also working to reduce these emissions.
At present, many countries around the world have begun to pay attention to this issue, especially in Alberta, Canada, where a series of environmental protection regulations have been formulated to meet the 2030 emission reduction targets.
For coal mining, pollution and emission problems are also unavoidable. During the mining process, methane trapped in coal seams can easily be released as the mining progresses, and according to data from some countries, methane released from coal has become one of the important sources of global methane emissions. Even though technology has improved in the past few years and more than 200 mines have begun capturing some of the methane they emit, only about three million tons are being effectively used or reduced. In fact, according to global climate monitoring data, coal emissions account for 9% of global methane emissions.
In the relevant research of gas fields, the extraction of non-associated petroleum gas itself is relatively intuitive and economically efficient, but emissions usually occur during pipeline transportation, especially during the transmission to the consumer market. The emissions from transportation cannot be ignored.
Environmental scholars point out that with the establishment of the natural gas market, countries have begun to pay attention to the utilization and development of associated gas, which was previously regarded as a low-value by-product, and this is obviously helpful in reducing environmental impact.
However, as the natural gas market matures, related emissions data remain worrying. The impact of global climate change has caused people to reflect on whether this use of energy is suitable for the future. According to a report by the International Energy Agency (IEA), methane emissions from the oil and gas industry have increased year by year in recent years, reaching 82 million tons in 2019. This figure not only reflects the impact of human activities on the atmosphere, but also It warns people how much they have neglected their environmental responsibilities while pursuing economic interests.
The conclusion is, facing the current situation where natural gas emissions in energy extraction are unavoidable, how should we balance the contradiction between economic development and environmental protection, find sustainable solutions, and ultimately achieve real emission reduction goals?
