EPA proposes pollution standards for E&P operations

Aug. 8, 2011
The US Environmental Protection Agency proposed new air pollution standards for oil and natural gas exploration and production operations in response to a court order.

Nick Snow
Washington Editor

The US Environmental Protection Agency proposed new air pollution standards for oil and natural gas exploration and production operations in response to a court order.

The standards would require operators to capture natural gas that currently escapes into the atmosphere, the agency indicated on July 29.

EPA said the proposal would cut volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted during several processes, including a 95% reduction during completion of new and modified hydraulically fractured wells. Capturing gas that currently escapes into the air would make it available for sale through technology and processes several producers already use and some states require, EPA said.

US gas production is increasing with more than 25,000 new and existing wells being fractured or refraced each year, EPA said.

The agency anticipates the proposed VOC reductions would reduce ozone nonattainment problems in many oil and gas production areas. The proposed reductions also reduce methane emissions from new and modified wells. The proposed changes also would lower cancer risks from emissions of benzene and several other air toxics, it added.

EPA said its analysis of the proposed changes, which also include requirements for storage tanks and other equipment, show that the proposals are highly cost-effective, with a net savings to the industry of tens of millions of dollars annually from the value of gas that would no longer escape into the atmosphere.

The proposal included reviews of four air regulations for the oil and gas industry as required by the Clean Air Act: a new source performance standard for VOCs from equipment leaks at gas processing plants; a new source performance standard for sulfur dioxide emissions from gas processing plants; an air toxics standard for oil and gas production; and an air toxics standard for gas transmission and storage.

2012 deadline

The agency said that it was under a consent decree requiring it to take final action by Feb. 28, 2012. As part of a public comment period, EPA planned to schedule public hearings in Dallas, Denver, and Pittsburgh, Pa.

Industry groups initially reacted cautiously to the proposals.

"EPA has already imposed stringent emissions limitations on engines used in oil and gas operations," Howard Feldman, the American Petroleum Institute's scientific and regulatory policy director, said July 28. "API will review these proposed rules to ensure that they don't inadvertently create unsafe operating conditions, are cost effective and truly provide additional public health benefits, and don't stifle the development of our abundant natural resources.

Feldman said API also would like EPA to extend the final rule deadline beyond February 2012 by a minimum of 6 months to allow adequate time to collect and analyze comments on the proposed rules.

A spokeswoman for the Independent Petroleum Association of America said IPAA wanted to could take a close look at EPA's proposal once it was published in the Federal Register.

"The information that we have seen from the EPA is very vague," she told OGJ in a July 29 e-mail. "Many oil and gas producers already use green completion technologies; however, we do not know whether they are the same as those proposed by EPA."

Environmental organizations applauded the proposed rules.

"Natural gas drilling has been spewing vast amounts of toxins into our air every day without limits, sickening families and communities," Deb Nardone, who directs the Sierra Club's natural gas reform campaign, said on July 28. "This proposed protection would help reign in life-threatening pollution from gas drilling for the first time and is a significant step forward in cleaning up a dirty industry."

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