Biden Backs Loan to Spot Permian Methane Leaks With Lasers

(Bloomberg) -- The Biden administration is backing a $189 million loan commitment to a Boulder, Colorado-based company for the development of a vast methane detection network that aims to monitor tens of thousands of oil and gas sites using lasers to identify leaks of the potent heat-trapping gas that is a major contributor to climate change.

The Energy Department announced the conditional loan guarantee Friday to privately-held LongPath Technologies, Inc., which is developing a subscription service to provide real-time methane emission monitoring for 25 million acres of land in the prolific Permian Basin and oil and gas production sites across six states.

Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas that has more than 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide during its first two decades in the atmosphere. Curbing methane emissions from the oil and gas sector — where it’s intentionally vented from wells, burned off as a waste product or simply leaks from equipment — is seen as critical to reducing the climate impact of those fossil fuels. 

Although identifying and plugging these leaks could do more to slow climate change than almost any other single measure, monitoring is typically conducted using methods such as flyovers or optical gas imaging cameras that leave major gaps in emission detection and can lead to leaks potentially going unnoticed for months, according to the department. Because it packs such a powerful punch in the short term, reductions can yield near-immediate results — unlike the longer time frame required for the impact of carbon dioxide cuts.

LongPath’s technology uses lasers to identify methane molecules in the air and can continuously monitor nearly eight-square miles for emissions, and notify operators in the event of a leak, the Energy Department said. The company is already using lasers atop 50-foot towers to monitor nearly hundreds of square miles of oil ans gas infrastructure and, if finalized, the financing from the Energy Department’s would be used for the deployment and installation of as much as 24,000-square miles of coverage, the department said. 

While, for decades, producers and regulators relied on makeshift techniques such as throwing a tarp over a pipe to see if it bubbled or sending workers out to inspect equipment, LongPath’s approach comes amid other new ways to curb methane emissions, including the use of high-resolution satellites to spot leaks of the invisible gas.

The financing also comes amid a US crackdown on methane emissions from the oil and gas sector, weeks after the Biden administration finalized a regulation forcing companies to replace leaky equipment and regularly search for escaping gas. The loan commitment also dovetails with an intensifying global focus on reducing methane, with nearly 200 countries at the recent COP28 climate change summit for the first time singling out the planet-warming gas for substantial reductions this decade.

Human activity accounts for about 60% of global methane emissions annually, with about 35% of that attributable to the fossil fuel industry. If finalized, the Energy Department said LongPath’s network is expected to prevent methane emissions equal to at least six million tons of carbon dioxide annually, the equivalent of taking 1.3 million gasoline powered vehicles off the road.

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