Oil and Gas Methane Data Visualisation – Metadata Document

Oil and Gas Methane Data Visualisation – Metadata document

The data visualisation demonstrates that the EU is still a major consumer of natural gas (12% of the total global supply) and that across the EU, natural gas provides a significant proportion of the primary energy consumed1. The natural gas pipeline network represents a major source of downstream2 fugitive methane emissions, and EU countries depend on this infrastructure to supply them with the commodity. Only a few EU countries produce significant quantities of natural gas (the EU produces 3% of the global natural gas production), thus, Norway and Russia provide the bulk of the natural gas imports to EU countries via pipeline routes in order to meet the EU’s demand. As a result, in 2015, according to submissions to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), 62% of methane emissions attributed to the EU’s oil and gas industry came from the downstream gas network.

It is not only the consumption3 of natural gas that brings with it the potential for associated fugitive methane emissions. Oil production4 and gas production5 (referred to as the upstream6 division of the industry) includes processes that emit methane into the atmosphere, for example, through venting, incomplete combustion during flaring, or operational processes. According to submissions to the UNFCCC, in 2015, the upstream industry was responsible for 37% of oil and gas methane emissions in the EU (and over half of these emissions were from oil production).

The visualisation highlights the reported absolute and relative contribution of EU member states to the EU’s total oil and gas methane emissions, whilst associating the emissions to either upstream or downstream activities. It is important to note that these emissions tend to be based on estimates that rely on emission factors, and not empirical data from measurements made at different spatial scales. Numerous studies have found that oil and gas sources have a “fat-tail” distribution with the top five or ten percent of the highest emitting sites/sources accounting for a large portion of

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emissions. Traditional inventory approaches that rely on emission factors, including those utilised in the EU, often do not account for these high emitting sources and therefore have a tendency to underestimate emissions.

The data used for the visualisation has been compiled from a variety of sources, including BP’s Statistical Reviews of World Energy, UNFCCC submissions, the US Environmental Information Administration, Rystad Energy, World Bank and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

1 Primary energy consumption – takes into account energy consumed from all sources. ‘Other sources of energy’ includes: Oil, Coal, Nuclear Energy, Hydroelectric and Renewables. 2 Downstream emissions are defined as those from transmission, distribution and other leakages. 3 Gas consumption – Includes derivatives of coal as well as natural gas consumed in Gas-to-Liquids transformation. 4 Oil production – the visualisation includes data from production of crude oil, shale oil, oil sands and NGLs (natural gas liquids – the liquid content of natural gas where this is recovered separately). It excludes liquid fuels from other sources such as biomass and derivatives of coal and natural gas. 5 Gas production – Includes data from natural gas produced for Gas-to-Liquids transformation. Excludes gas flared or recycled. 6 Upstream emissions are defined as those from exploration, production, processing, gas flaring and venting.

Environmental Defense Fund Europe is a registered charity (charity number 1164661) and a company limited by guarantee, incorporated in England and Wales (company number 09217493).