Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Oil, Gas, and Energy
Wildfires increasingly threaten oil and gas wells in the western United States with disproportionate impacts on marginalized populations
Published: 2023-11-15
Subjects: Environmental Health and Protection, Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, Oil, Gas, and Energy
The western United States is home to most of the nation’s oil and gas production and, increasingly, wildfires. We examined historical threats of wildfires for oil and gas wells, the extent to which wildfires are projected to threaten wells as climate change progresses, and exposure of human populations to these wells. From 1984–2019, we found that cumulatively 102,882 wells were [...]
Spaceborne assessment of the Soviet Union's role in the 1990s methane slowdown
Published: 2023-10-04
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Oil, Gas, and Energy, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Methane is the second most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas, amounting to 60% of the radiative forcing from CO2 since pre-industrial times based on emitted compound. Global atmospheric methane concentrations rose by 10-15 ppb/yr in the 1980s before abruptly slowing to 2-8 ppb/yr in the early 1990s. This period in the 1990s is known as the ``methane slowdown'' and has been attributed to the [...]
Soil geochemistry of hydrogen and other gases along the San Andreas Fault
Published: 2023-07-23
Subjects: Environmental Chemistry, Geochemistry, Geology, Multivariate Analysis, Oil, Gas, and Energy, Soil Science
Natural hydrogen has generated great interest as a potential clean and renewable energy source. To understand the occurrence of natural hydrogen, 103 1-m deep soil gas samples were acquired near the San Andreas Fault at Jasper Ridge and Portola Valley, California, USA. The gas samples were analyzed for hydrogen, helium, carbon dioxide, light hydrocarbons, and fixed gas concentrations. Statistical [...]
Standardized Benchmark of Historical Compound Wind and Solar Energy Droughts Across the Continental United States
Published: 2023-06-23
Subjects: Meteorology, Oil, Gas, and Energy, Statistical Methodology, Sustainability
As we move towards a decarbonized grid, reliance on weather-dependent energy increases as does exposure to prolonged natural resource shortages known as energy droughts. Compound energy droughts occur when two or more predominant renewable energy sources simultaneously are in drought conditions. In this study we present a methodology and dataset for examining compound wind and solar energy [...]
Technological Maturity of Aircraft-Based Methane Sensing for Greenhouse Gas Mitigation
Published: 2023-06-22
Subjects: Engineering, Environmental Monitoring, Oil, Gas, and Energy
Methane is a major contributor to anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. Identifying large sources of methane, particularly from the oil and gas sector, will be essential for mitigating climate change. Aircraft-based methane sensing platforms can rapidly detect and quantify methane point-source emissions across large geographic regions, playing an increasingly important role in industrial [...]
Carbon Utilization and Storage through Rehabilitation of Groundwater Wells
Published: 2023-05-21
Subjects: Applied Statistics, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Climate, Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Geochemistry, Hydrology, Longitudinal Data Analysis and Time Series, Oil, Gas, and Energy, Statistical Methodology, Statistical Models, Statistics and Probability
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) of the United Nations (UN), rise in atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) due to anthropogenic factors is considered as the primary driver for global climate change. With almost every major corporation around the world working towards their “net-zero goals”, it is becoming increasingly important to have more [...]
Single-Blind Detection, Localization, and Quantification of Methane Emissions Using Continuous Path-Integrated Column Measurements
Published: 2023-04-13
Subjects: Environmental Monitoring, Oil, Gas, and Energy
Path-integrated column measurements with a laser absorption-based measurement system have been used to detect, locate, and quantify methane emissions from a series of single-blind controlled releases with no prior knowledge of timing, locations, or release rates. System performance was evaluated against metrics defined in the Continuous Monitoring Protocol established by the Colorado State [...]
Consolidated Geothermal Database UK (CGD-UK): A digital open license database for temperature and thermal conductivity in the UK.
Published: 2023-04-09
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Geophysics and Seismology, Natural Resource Economics, Oil, Gas, and Energy, Other Earth Sciences, Tectonics and Structure
Variations in subsurface heat flow within the upper crust control the distribution of geothermal resources. Development of a robust understanding of these variations requires reliable measurements of temperature and thermal conductivity. To date, measurements of temperature and conductivity onshore the UK have been unavailable in an accessible, clearly structured digital format. Here, we rectify [...]
Revisiting the Climate Narrative
Published: 2023-04-06
Subjects: Agriculture, Climate, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Engineering, Environmental Studies, Food Science, Forest Management, Hydrology, Natural Resources and Conservation, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Oil, Gas, and Energy, Other Environmental Sciences, Soil Science, Sustainability, Water Resource Management
The rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide is chiefly tied to land stewardship. Farmers and loggers have removed the plants that, until the industrial era, kept the soil fungi alive, kept soil emissions nearby by breaking the wind, and soaked those up. The result is plumes of carbon dioxide. Putting plants back in would curb these emissions. Farmers and loggers could address biodiversity loss [...]
Greenhouse gas intensity of geologic hydrogen produced from subsurface deposits
Published: 2023-03-23
Subjects: Environmental Engineering, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Oil, Gas, and Energy
Geologic hydrogen (H2) deposits could be a source of climate friendly energy. In this work, we perform a prospective life cycle assessment of a generic geologic hydrogen production and processing system. While it is still too early in the development cycle to estimate precise life-cycle carbon intensities (CI) we can use fundamental engineering physics and chemistry to estimate CI. Our baseline [...]
Evaluating methane emission quantification performance and uncertainty of aerial technologies via high-volume single-blind controlled releases
Published: 2023-03-11
Subjects: Oil, Gas, and Energy
Methane (CH4) from oil and gas (O&G) activities is a known contributor to global anthropogenic methane emissions and recent research has demonstrated that a small fraction of large emitters contribute to the majority of total emissions. In this study, we perform a single-blind evaluation of the quantification capabilities of three airplane-based technologies (Bridger Photonics’ Gas Mapping LiDAR, [...]
An Updated Parametrization of Algorithms to Retrieve the Diffuse Attenuation of Light in the Ocean from Remote Sensing and its Impact on Estimates of Net Primary Productivity
Published: 2023-02-10
Subjects: Climate, Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Oil, Gas, and Energy, Other Environmental Sciences
We recently found a significant bias while validating frequently used ocean color algorithms retrieving the spectral diffuse attenuation coefficient (Kd(λ))(Begouen and Boss, 2022). Here we modify existing algorithms for Kd(λ) to remove the observed bias at Kd(490), and evaluate the impact on global and regional estimates of net primary production (NPP) using two different primary production [...]
Extension of Methane Emission Rate Distribution for Permian Basin Oil and Gas Production Infrastructure by Aerial LiDAR
Published: 2023-01-11
Subjects: Environmental Monitoring, Oil, Gas, and Energy
Aerial LiDAR measurements at 7474 oil and gas production facilities in the Permian Basin yield a measured methane emission rate distribution extending to the detection sensitivity of the method, 2 kg/h at 90% probability of detection. Emissions are found at 38.3% of facilities scanned, a significantly higher proportion than reported in lower-sensitivity campaigns. LiDAR measurements are analyzed [...]
Laboratory validation of a new hydro-mechanical energy-based brittleness index model for hydraulic fracturing
Published: 2022-12-01
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Engineering Science and Materials, Mining Engineering, Oil, Gas, and Energy, Petroleum Engineering
Brittleness Index (BI) is a critical parameter characterising the deformation regime of geo-materials, covering the range from purely brittle (fractures) to ductile (plastic flow). A variety of BI models have been developed based on rock properties such as mineralogy, elastic parameters, or stress-strain data. However, very few of them are based on the deformation induced by hydro-mechanical [...]
How reproducible and reliable is geophysical research? A review of the availability and accessibility of data and software for research published in journals
Published: 2022-11-17
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Oil, Gas, and Energy, Other Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sustainability
Geophysical research frequently makes use of agreed methodologies, formally published software, and bespoke code to process and analyse data. The reliability and repeatability of these methods is vital in maintaining the integrity of research findings and thereby avoiding the dissemination of unreliable results. In recent years there has been increased attention on aspects of reproducibility, [...]