Aramco, GHGSat to develop satellites for methane emissions reduction
By Khalid Y. Al Qahtani, Aramco Senior Vice President of Engineering Services
Aramco and GHGSat have joined forces to help address a notable source of greenhouse gas emissions. A world leader in satellite emissions monitoring, GHGSat was contracted by Aramco Americas (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Aramco) to monitor methane based on the success of an earlier pilot program.
Methane is a potent greenhouse gas (GHG) with a considerably higher global warming potential than CO2. This, and the fact that reducing methane emissions from oil and gas operations is potentially one of the most cost-effective and quickest ways to abate GHG emissions, creates an opportunity for energy companies, including Aramco.
Abating methane emissions is an important lever for Aramco in its ambition toward net-zero Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions across its wholly owned and operated assets by 2050.
Aramco continuously looks into new ways to abate methane emissions from our operations — and now the company is exploring novel methane remote-sensing technologies based on advanced satellites to monitor emissions.
These satellites offer an opportunity for the oil and gas industry to complement its legacy practices in detecting leaking equipment. Satellites can make more frequent observations, providing operators on the ground with information they need to help detect and prevent methane leaks.
While detection of methane emissions has grown over time, initial efforts to spot leaks from space were previously hampered by low resolution and sensitivity. That has now improved thanks to the evolution in remote sensing technologies and sensors.
Space-age solutions
To further advance Aramco’s methane monitoring and mitigation efforts, Aramco, through its subsidiary Aramco Americas, joined forces with Canadian firm GHGSat, which specializes in remote-sensing satellite methane detection and quantification. A constellation of specialized satellites is currently in orbit, providing essential information on emissions and enabling us to monitor Aramco’s major upstream facilities and infrastructure across the Kingdom. The information provided can help identify and confirm unintentional leaks, establish what caused them, and address this.
The enhanced data-processing capabilities that satellites provide will form part of a multi-tier approach that includes the deployment of advanced methane detection technologies to our facilities to allow for more efficient monitoring. We aim to integrate the insights the satellite data provides with our methane monitoring program.
The cooperation between Aramco and GHGSat has already provided better insights into the impact of our operations, enabling us to improve the mitigation of methane emissions.
Building momentum
Given the importance of methane mitigation, it is no surprise a growing number of initiatives have encouraged action from governments and companies. Launched at COP26 in 2021, the Global Methane Pledge was signed by 157 countries, including Saudi Arabia. These countries pledged to reduce their methane emissions by at least 30% by 2030.
Aramco aims to play an important role in mitigating methane emissions and has been recovering gas associated with oil production since the 1980s through our Master Gas System. Flaring is monitored in real time from our Fourth Industrial Revolution Center (4IRC) in Dhahran, while our Leak Detection and Repair (LDAR) program, initiated in 2018, mitigates fugitive leaks through a systematic identification of leaking equipment so emissions can be reduced through repairs.
Aramco has also endorsed the World Bank’s Zero Routine Flaring by 2030 initiative , and the company has signed up to both the Oil and Gas Decarbonization Charter (launched at COP28 in 2023) and the Aiming for Zero Methane Emissions Initiative, developed in 2022 by the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative, of which Aramco is a founding member
