Differentiated Gas Coordinating Council Responds to the Bureau of Land Management’s Request for Comments on Waste Prevention, Production Subject to Royalties, and Resource Conservation Rule

Differentiated Gas Coordinating Council

For Immediate Release

January 30, 2023

Contact: info@dgccouncil.com

NEWS: Differentiated Gas Coordinating Council Urges the Bureau of Land Management to Incorporate Available, Cost-Effective Technology for Direct Measurement and Continuous Monitoring of Methane Emissions in its Proposed Rule

WASHINGTON - The Differentiated Gas Coordinating Council (DGCC), an ad hoc coalition of stakeholders across the natural gas supply chain dedicated to expanding the market for low-methane-loss, “differentiated” natural gas, submitted comments to the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Proposed Rule to reduce natural gas waste from venting, flaring, and leaks during oil and gas production activities on Federal and Indian lands.

In its comments, the DGCC emphasized that BLM should take greater advantage of site-level direct measurement and continuous monitoring technology both in its Final Rule and in subsequent implementing guidance to ensure that the maximum amount of public gas resources and associated royalties are recovered. The DGCC also highlighted that operators can significantly benefit from using this technology because it recaptures potentially lost revenue and streamlines compliance with other regulatory frameworks.

BLM’s Proposed Rule provides a much-needed update to existing, decades-old regulations governing venting, flaring, and leaks of oil and gas production on federal lands. However, the Proposed Rule does not fully take advantage of widely available, cost-effective technology that would help BLM fulfill its statutory mandates to prevent the waste of resources and assess royalties on resources produced on federal lands.

For example, in its current form, the Proposed Rule allows operators to report estimated volumes of gas vented or flared and does not require operators to record and report any volumes of gas leaked. Requiring operators to directly measure, where feasible, volumes of gas leaked, vented, or flared would better align with existing federal statutory mandates. Additionally, requiring operators to record and report volumes of gas leaked, where feasible, will facilitate an accurate assessment of gas that is avoidably lost.

Through its comments, the DGCC highlighted that incorporating the use of available continuous monitoring technology will allow operators to quickly detect leaks and initiate prompt corrective action, resulting in cost savings to the operator and compliance with multiple federal regulations, including the Proposed Rule.

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Established in 2022, the DGCC is an ad hoc coalition of stakeholders across the natural gas supply chain dedicated to expanding the market for low methane, “differentiated” natural gas. Its members include academics; downstream, midstream, and upstream energy producers; gas customers; and technology companies. The DGCC’s goal is to facilitate a federal pathway for state regulators, utilities, and gas consumers to accept differentiated gas as an important option to meet their climate goals. We believe that the adoption of differentiated gas is the best way to rapidly reduce methane emissions in the oil and gas sector—a win for American energy producers, energy consumers, and the climate.