Despite Massive Increases In Gas Leaks, Largest NM Producer Reports Nothing To See Here, Move Along
In New Mexico, new state rules sparked a dramatic increase in reported incidents of vented and flared natural gas in 2021 — and reveal that the oil and gas industry has been losing vastly more of the climate-change-driving fossil fuel than previously reported. “The state’s updated reporting requirements were long overdue,” says Jon Goldstein, senior director of regulatory and legislative affairs at the Environmental Defense Fund. The new numbers are in line with previous EDF research showing huge amounts of vented and flared natural gas in recent years.
A review of year-end data from the state’s Oil Conservation Division (OCD) shows that producers vented or flared enough natural gas to power nearly 39,000 homes for a year — roughly the number of households in Las Cruces, the state’s second-largest city. The actual total for the year is likely much higher as the new reporting only began in May. Not only that, but the new reporting system also reveals that the state’s largest natural gas producer, Hilcorp Energy of Houston, reported surprisingly low numbers of incidents — about a hundred times lower than either similarly sized competitors or the size of its operations would suggest. “Unsurprisingly, I’m unsurprised,” says rancher Don Schreiber.
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But operators fill out the reports themselves — and that is checked in the field by just 10 OCD inspectors who are responsible for monitoring more than 52,000 active oil and gas wells across the entire state. The department has requested a 27% bump in its budget for enforcement for 2023, but that ultimately rests with New Mexico legislators in their upcoming session. Schreiber regularly checks the Hilcorp wells on his property with a heat-imaging camera that can show temperature differences that reveal leaking gasses invisible to the naked eye. “Every chance we get we do that. And we never fail to find leaks and vents,” he says, including in the last seven and a half months since the new reporting rules went into effect.
That imaging was done with Earthworks, which documents leaking wells across the region and reports them to state authorities. Its YouTube channel has more than three dozen videos of gasses leaking from Hilcorp operations in New Mexico. In a report released earlier this year by Ceres and the Clean Air Task Force, Hilcorp was ranked the most prolific methane emitter of all oil and gas corporations in the country. According to data on Hilcorp’s website, the company has operations across the U.S., but 54% of its activity is in the San Juan Basin, which stretches across New Mexico and a bit into Colorado.
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https://capitalandmain.com/new-data-shows-massive-climate-warming-leaks-by-new-mexico-oil-and-gas-operators