The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed amendments to the regulation on methane (CH4) emissions from oil and gas operations, the so-called New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) for the oil and natural gas industry, introduced in 2016 by the previous administration.
The new rules would eliminate federal rules requiring oil and gas companies to install technology to detect and fix CH4 leaks during their oil and gas operations (leaks from wells, pipelines and storage facilities), which reportedly represent an unnecessary regulatory duplication. The EPA would remove sources in the transmission and storage segment of the oil and gas industry from regulation, i.e. transmission compressor stations, pneumatic controllers, and underground storage vessels. In addition, it would rescind CH4 emissions limits from the production and processing segments, while keeping emission limits for ozone-forming volatile organic compounds (VOCs). These sources include well completions, gas processing plants and storage tanks. In an alternative proposal, EPA would rescind the CH4 emissions limitations without removing any sources from the transmission and storage segment from regulation.
The proposed regulations will be open for consultation for 60 days.