The final rule requiring oil and natural gas companies to count their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, including CO₂, has been printed in the Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2010 Federal Register. The EPA is promulgating a regulation to require monitoring and reporting of GHG emissions from petroleum and natural gas systems. This action adds this source category to the list of source categories already required to report such emissions, and applies to sources with CO₂-equivalent emissions above certain threshold levels

The final rule is effective on Dec. 30, 2010, meaning reporting will begin with emissions in 2011.

Source categories were set as follows:

• Petroleum and Natural Gas Systems.
General Stationary Fuel Combustion Sources. Petroleum Refineries Suppliers of Petroleum Products Suppliers of Natural Gas and Natural Gas Liquids Suppliers of CO₂ Injection and Geologic Sequestration of CO₂ (proposed).

Facilities from that meet the applicability criteria in the General Provisions also must report their GHG emissions. These include:

Offshore petroleum and natural gas production Onshore natural gas processing Onshore natural gas transmission compression Underground natural gas storage LNG storage, and LNG import and export equipment

Facilities assessing their applicability in the onshore petroleum and natural gas production and distribution segments must include only emissions from equipment identified in their applicable CFR tables to determine if they exceed the 25,000-metric ton CO₂e threshold. For other segments, facilities must assess applicability based on all source categories for which methods are provided in the GHG Reporting Program.

Facilities must report the following emissions:

• CO₂ and methane
• CH₄ emissions from equipment leaks and vents
• CO₂, CH₄, and N₂O from combustion, and
• CO₂, CH₄, and N₂O emissions from combustion at flares

Within those segments, there are different types of emissions sources, some of which appear in multiple segments (e.g., pneumatic devices, blowdown vents, etc.). Subpart W provides methodologies for calculating emissions from each source type. Although the rule, in some cases, allows reporters the flexibility to choose from more than one method for calculating emissions from a specific source type, reporters must keep records of that in their monitoring plans.

SOURCE: Federal Register