Kinder Morgan’s Journey in Reducing Methane Emissions

In the last few years, market forces and innovation have transformed the natural gas industry; the industry has sparked a revolution whereby the United States is on the cusp of long-awaited energy independence and has achieved energy dominance as the world’s leading producer of natural gas.

Kinder Morgan owns and operates one of the largest natural gas networks with approximately 70,000 miles of natural gas pipelines. Their natural gas network is connected to every important U.S. natural gas resource play, including the Eagle Ford, Marcellus, Utica, Uinta, Haynesville, Fayetteville, and Barnett and moves about 40 percent of the natural gas consumed in America.

While striving for a zero-carbon economy may sound good, trying to phase out and eliminate the use of natural gas doesn’t. Natural Gas has been responsible for the American energy resurgence, at the same time, reducing its greenhouse gas emissions. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, methane emissions from the energy sector decreased 14 percent from 1990 to 2016, while natural gas output increased by more than 50 percent during the same period.

What we call natural gas is almost purely methane — a simple compound, chemically speaking, consisting of a single carbon atom with four hydrogen atoms (CH4). Because of its simplicity and lack of additional compounds, natural gas is the cleanest fossil fuel when burnt to produce energy, emitting virtually no NOx (nitrous oxide), SOx (sulfur dioxide), or particulate matter. Natural gas is also the least carbon-intensive of fossil fuels, producing half as much carbon dioxide as other fossil fuels when used to produce electrical power. However, if methane is emitted directly into the atmosphere instead of combusted, it is a potent greenhouse gas that is roughly 25 times more powerful at trapping heat than carbon dioxide.

ONE Future identifies policy and technical solutions for continuous improvement

Kinder has been committed to reducing its methane emissions since 1913. It is part of EPA Natural Gas STAR Methane Challenge and was a founding member of ONE Future. ONE Future Coalition is a group of natural gas companies working together to voluntarily reduce methane emissions across the natural gas supply chain, with a goal to lower emissions to 1% by 2025. We are a unique coalition of leading companies who recognize that excessive methane emissions can potentially erode the benefits of natural gas relative to other fossil fuels and therefore prudent development and operations are vital to ensuring the industry can support the energy needs of the nation and the world in a sustainable manner, even in a low carbon economy. With operations across every part of the natural gas value chain, we are focused on identifying policy and technical solutions that yield continuous improvement in the management of methane emissions associated with the production, processing, transmission, and distribution of natural gas.

How Kinder Morgan reduced its emissions

Kinder Morgan operates nearly 84,000 miles of pipelines, 157 terminals, and 24 natural gas storage facilities. As that relates to natural gas

• ~70,000 miles of natural gas pipelines
• 657 Bcfd of working storage capacity
• Connected to every important U.S. natural gas resource play and key demand centers
• Move ~40% of natural gas consumed in the U.S.

Kinder Morgan is committed to reducing emissions and has been doing so since 1993

Kinder Morgan pipeline safety program

As one of the robust pipeline safety measures, KM does continuous-scheduled aerial and ground Patrols. The aim is to check the pipeline right-of-way as well as adjacent areas inspection for product release and prove of hazards through external sources that might threaten the pipeline.

The DOT/PHMSA requirement for frequency of patrolling:

• Liquids pipelines are required to be patrolled 26 times a year, not to exceed 21 days
• KM patrols weekly or more frequently, as needed
• Most of KM’s Natural gas pipelines are required to be patrolled annually
• KM patrols monthly or more frequently, as needed

Kinder Morgan’s future-Methane challenge obligations

ONE Future challenge and future commitments in reducing methane includes the following;

• Detection of equipment leak and repair at their T&S stations
• Fixing of compression Sleeves to protect pipelines from breaking up
• Drawdowns of transmission pipeline blowdown volumes
• Fixing of gas turbine-driven compression
• And fixing of electric motor driven compression

ONE Future’s Results

Using systematic, concrete, and confirmable objectives for reducing methane emissions, Kinder Morgan was able to exceed its 1% goal while giving its report in 2017 numbers. In the 2018 report, the coalition recorded a 2018 methane intensity figure of 0.326%, a reduction of 41% from her 2017 figure of 0.552%. ONE Future’s members have procedures spanning the natural gas value chain: oil and natural gas production, natural gas gathering and boosting, natural gas processing, natural gas transmission, as well as the storage and natural gas distribution.  ONE Future reports as part of the transmission and storage sector in 2017 were 0.552%, and in 2018, it was 0.326%. Kinder Morgan’s numbers for those years were 0.04% and 0.02%, respectively.

The method used to reduce emission

ONE Future utilized a science-based technology with other approaches to reduce emissions in the all-natural gas chain. Our team and member companies have a long and successful history in discovering producing, processing, transporting, as well as delivering natural gas to residential and industrial consumers across the United States

Our members had common objectives to lessen emissions so that there will be improved quality of life for the communities where we base our operation. We have vowed to continue in our operation to further lessen emission while encouraging others to follow us in the reduction process.

Our reporting process

We report our numbers in the distribution and transition of the gas annually; this way, we were able to have control over the figure. ONE Future surpassed its 1% objectives while reporting the 2017 numbers. In the 2018 report, our coalition recorded a methane intensity figure of 0.326%, which was a fall from 41% of the 2017 figure of 0.552%.

Our performance target

We have four main industrial sectors, namely, Exploration, manufacturing, Gathering, Processing, and Transmission, with Storage, Distribution, and Retail.  Our set targets help each sector in benchmarking organizational improvement toward our goals. It also quickens judgments amid diverse firms as we all struggle for total performance.

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