TECHNICAL ARTICLE
BACKGROUND EXPLAINER
Shell and Equinor and Ithaca Energy were awarded Development and Production Consents by the UK regulator, but in January, an Edinburgh court ruled that consent had been granted unlawfully and decreed that fresh approval must be sought.
In order to start drilling, Lord Ericht, in his 57-page written ruling, said that the three companies involved would need to carry out a detailed assessment of their downstream emissions. The assessment, he said, should, in short, aim to find out the long term climate effect of burning what they planned to extract.
To satisfy the courts and the government, stakeholders must submit an Environmental Statement to the Offshore Petroleum Regulator for the Environment and Decommissioning( OPRED), for consultation and assessment, as part of the Environmental Impact Assessment process. Scope 1 and 2 emissions are already assessed by the operators within the Environmental Statements.
Once OPRED has approved the environmental impact statement, a separate document containing the Field Development Plan( FDP) must also be sent to the North Sea Transition Authority( NSTA). This sets out the operator’ s strategy for construction of the offshore infrastructure itself. After assessing the field development plan, the NSTA decides whether or not to issue development and production consent.
In the case of any new development, operators would need to demonstrate that their plans keep Scope 1 production emissions as low as practicable. This includes ensuring new developments have zero routine flaring and venting and have examined low-carbon power options.
At the time of writing, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero( DESNZ) had not published updated environmental guidance as to how owners should proceed with their Environmental Statements, which it said will be available in the spring.
ing cameras and methane sniffers, are often unable to detect what Wood Mackenzie calls‘ snowballer’ leaks. In a recent paper by Wood Mackenzie entitled,“ Tackling the Oil and Gas Industry’ s Methane Challenge”, the paper’ s authors say that more than half of the leaks are“ small scale operational emissions.” Wood Mackenzie’ s Emissions Benchmarking Tool also reveals that the typical methane loss per field was less than 500 kg / hr. This, it says, is
“ below the measurable resolution of most current satellites” but, most crucially, Wood Mackenzie states that“ 96 percent of all fields have emissions on this scale.”
Professor Harris thinks that while there has been“ a big improvement in the quality and quantity of satellite measurements of methane,” which can detect and track super-emitter events, he thinks that the high detection limits of satellite technology miss small leaks, coupled with the fact that they cannot provide accurate readings in cloudy weather. He says that oil and gas companies“ need to come up with low-cost, on-site measurement systems that can be combined with satellite observations.”
He added,“… It is likely that next generation sensors will be used in AI-enabled networks which allows lower-cost sensors to be used. Having said that, CH4 is very hard to measure well.”
In addition to using satellite technology, this is why many international oil companies are also incorporating stateof-the-art, ground-based monitoring sensor systems into their MRV and LDAR process safety programs.
Peter Maas, Grandperspective’ s GmbH’ s CEO, says that its remote sensors“ are particularly effective” at detecting methane and other greenhouse gases. This is because methane’ s“ spectral signature is of a much higher frequency than other gases,” Maas explained.“ Optical gas imaging cameras or fixed-point sensors must also compensate for humidity and temperature to ensure an accurate reading. This is often beyond their capability and it means that small-scale leaks often go undetected.”
Conclusion
At a time when climate laws – particularly regulation around methane abatement – are increasing, advanced sensor technology, which strengthens environmental monitoring programmes, is very much in demand. This is because with economies of scale kicking in, it is not just oil and gas companies who possess the reach, the range, and the specificity to monitor‘ snowballer’ leaks. Anyone can do so now, including individual states, environmental pressure groups, and individuals.
“ This newly acquired visibility has proved a game-changer,” said Maas.“ It has meant that multinational oil field service companies are investing even greater resources into small-scale leak monitoring, detection, and reporting programs, which enable them to carry out low-touch, site-wide emission audits efficiently and effectively.”
Professor Harris believes that in the future, satellite or ground-based systems, or a combination of both, driven by AI, could pave the way for oil and gas companies to create“ a simple digital twin”.
Dr. Hodgkinson is not sure however what role, if any, a digital twin might play.“ It’ s( a digital twin) not essential,” she says,“ They( oil and gas companies) will certainly need to make assumptions to enable forward predictions. We would hope that these are valid assumptions based on evidence from existing infrastructure.”
Peter Maas says that before such models could be considered, the data building blocks need to be put in place.“ The success of a digital twin or digital shadow is entirely dependent on data. It needs to be a rich and continuous seam of information. One way of generating that real-time data is through passive ground-based remote sensing technology, where detection limits areextremely low. Sensors that collect millions of spectra of data each day could in theory provide the foundations on which a digital twin or digital shadow is built.”
Not only could next-generation sensor and satellite technology lend greater governance, transparency, and accountability to the emission reporting process, at a time when national and global energy security risks have increased exponentially, it could provide regulators with the data they require to make more informed decisions as to whether an oil and gas project should go ahead.
28 FUGITIVE EMISSIONS JOURNAL • JUNE 2025