David Wethe, Zachary Mider and Aaron Clark, Bloomberg
- Texas is investigating why pipeline operator Targa Resources Corp. failed to report an unexpected release of tons of natural gas within 24 hours, as required by state regulations.
Targa disclosed the incident two weeks after it happened and within eight hours after Bloomberg emailed the Houston-based company a satellite image that appears to show a significant cloud of methane near one of its compressor stations in Midland County.
The Jan. 20 incident in the heart of the Permian Basin, the world’s largest shale oilfield, wasn’t reported to state regulators until 4:42 p.m. on Feb. 3.
Companies operating in Targa said the January incident happened when station’s compressors shut down unexpectedly due to a broken belt, according to its February filing to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. To avoid a dangerous buildup of pressure, safety valves released gas directly into the atmosphere between 10:13 a.m. and 1:33 p.m.
The release matched the timing and location of two satellite observations that appeared to show methane spewing from near the company’s Germania compressor station.
The U.S. Geological Survey’s Landsat 8 satellite observed a plume of gas at 11:21 a.m. and the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2 satellite detected a release at 11:36 a.m., according to Kayrros SAS. The geoanalytics agency estimated the emissions rate of the plume at 21 metric tons an hour.
Owners and operators of regulated entities in Texas must submit initial notifications to the state regulator within 24 hours of discovery if an emissions event exceeds reportable quantities. Final reports must be submitted within two weeks.
The investigation of the Targa incident is ongoing, the Texas regulator said in a statement. “Based on the results of an investigation of a reportable incident the TCEQ may pursue enforcement actions when appropriate against regulated entities which may include the assessment of a penalty.’’
In the US, operators are set to face fines from the Environmental Protection Agency through rules that will take effect next year if their methane emissions exceed limits, with an initial fee starting at $900 per metric ton.
New approaches to processing high-resolution observations from public satellites are allowing scientists to detect and attribute methane emissions with far greater precision. The invisible, odorless gas has more than 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide during its first 20 years in the atmosphere and is responsible for approximately 30% of the Earth’s warming since the Industrial Revolution.
Targa faced scrutiny for its emissions two years ago when a polar blast hit Texas triggering widespread power outages and mechanical failures, many industrial facilities burned off or released huge quantities of hazardous gases as they shut down.
The worst culprits were two gas processing plants run by Targa that accounted for almost 20% of the state’s total pollution during the freeze.