Initial findings from continuous monitoring of oil and gas operations

Abstract

Through the wide deployment of air quality monitoring technology, we can better address greenhouse gas emissions from the oil and gas industry. There is considerable public pressure, industry engagement, and government regulation surrounding the push for more sophisticated and transparent monitoring. While much focus has been given to the technological development of monitoring devices and the use of airplane and LDAR resources, less focus has been given to the data acquisition, management, and analysis from these monitoring technologies. This paper presents an exploratory analysis of continuous monitoring data from two oil and gas sites in Colorado. Specifically, we highlight initial results from ongoing research into three areas: trend isolation for better use of continuous monitoring data in predictive models, anonymized metrics for presentation in a public facing dashboard, and source localization using meteorological data. The paper demonstrates some of the capabilities (as well as the challenges) of using continuous monitoring data in addressing greenhouse gas emissions and provides areas for further research.