Understanding the carbon footprint of the energy supply chain has been complicated by the reliance on estimates to report fugitive emissions and emission profiles for ESG reports and/or regulatory compliance. These estimates don’t often match up with actual measurements, making it impossible to truly quantify emissions and develop effective mitigation plans.
At Project Canary, we started tackling emissions reduction in the Upstream oil and gas sector first, where numerous independent studies have shown where the methane problems are the largest. In our effort to help the energy industry get the measurements it needs to march toward net-zero promises and compliance, we know that precision and actual measurements across the energy supply chain are more important than the estimates of a previous era
We’re excited to announce that Project Canary has launched certification and measurement at the Midstream. Our team of oil & gas engineers and technologists review the pipes, valves, and compressor stations that move the oil and gas from the oilfield (the place it comes out of the ground) to the burner tip or end-use location.
Project Canary Certification: Midstream combines both Certification and Continuous Monitoring. It leverages our deep expertise in Midstream petroleum engineering to ask questions such as: Was this pipeline properly designed? Was it properly constructed? Are best-in-class industry practices applied in daily operations? Is safety properly considered? To answer these questions, we’ll look through the policy, planning, and execution of the pipeline construction. A Canary Certification is next level, and so we’ll also examine how localized factors that may affect air, water, land, and community.
You may be wondering–are you really going to put a Canary Continuous Monitoring device every few hundred feet along pipelines? The answer is yes and no. We’ve decided to focus on putting our high fidelity Canary X methane sensors at compressor stations (a key potential emissions source) while leveraging third-party leak detection approaches to cover the length of the pipeline. There are many exciting and effective ways to conduct leak detection along a long and narrow pipeline–from flyovers to fiber optic cables–and we plan on examining each approach thoroughly. We’re excited to be able to contribute real-time leak detection at the compressor station level displayed on a dashboard minute by minute every day, helping Midstream companies understand their emissions profile and respond to leaks in real-time.
Project Canary is already acting on our commitment to drive certification and measurement across the energy value chain. We recently announced a partnership with Tallgrass Energy Partners for the Rockies Express Pipeline to certify the 1,700 mile-long REX pipeline for operational excellence and environmental performance.
This is also exciting news for energy consumers. Looking at the Midstream expands people’s ability to know where their energy molecules came from that eventually make it into our gas stoves, fireplaces, or natural gas-fueled electric power plants. When we examine environmental stewardship at both the Upstream and Midstream levels, we’re able to connect one more piece of the energy supply chain to track performance in real-time and, most importantly, further reduce emissions.