GHGSat uses microsatellites to measure methane emissions from U.S. shale gas development

March 27, 2019 | Case Study

Over the past decade, the U.S. shale revolution has given rise to rapid domestic natural gas production and made considerable contributions to the energy mix while significantly reducing coal consumption. Despite natural gas's reputation as the cleanest fossil fuel available, the industry is currently struggling to address fugitive methane emissions that originate from oil and gas activities. With the global demand for natural gas set to double in the next two decades, incumbent technologies utilized for detecting and quantifying methane leaks have high upfront costs upward of $75,000, thus making them economically unviable for widespread continuous monitoring.