Emissions from the natural gas infrastructure have been identified as targets to reduce EU’s Carbon Footprint by 2030, hence new regulations for the European gas industry to quantify and reduce methane emissions have been put in place by EU policymakers.

Accurate methane emissions quantification from natural gas infrastructure requires a combination of sensitive measurement technology, rigorous statistical methods for managing uncertainties and automated emission reporting tools for compliance with reporting requirements. Measurement-based emission quantification methods allow utilities to determine science-based reduction targets, and to provide a transparent and traceable progress on the journey to net-zero emissions.

Moreover, recent methane regulations aim for emission reductions through Leak Detection And Repair (LDAR) campaigns, which have proven to be more effective in reducing emissions than the replacement of vintage pipeline infrastructure. However, traditional technology used for LDAR has only focused on safety related aspects and could not be leveraged to gauge the environmental impact of the gas distribution. Given the additional demands from regulators, customers and shareholders, utilities across the world acknowledge a paradigm shift in the industry at large, which puts methane emissions front and center when addressing environmental, financial and safety-related concerns.

In this paper, we present how accurate emission measurements, can provide the basis to address safety, environmental and financial questions in a more coherent manner by leveraging application-specific data analytics solutions. We will demonstrate the usefulness of this innovative approach through specific examples and success stories from the natural gas industry.