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Air Pollution Associated with Oil and Natural Gas Operations
The demand and production of oil and natural gas in the United States has rapidly
increased every year due to growing population and technological advances that have
made previous undrilled, unconventional resources, such as shale gas, economically
achievable. In part due to expansion of operations to locations where the industry has
never been active, and brings emissions of air pollutants, along with other potential
environmental and public health impacts.
The sources of air emissions include leaks and routine venting during the extraction,
processing, and transportation of natural gas resulting in emissions or greenhouse gases
and depending on the local compositions of unprocessed gas, other pollutants that
contribute to local and regionally elevated air pollution that may threaten public health.
There are numerous individual components used throughout natural gas and oil production
systems that are prone to leaks including the following; compressors, valves, pumps,
flanges, gauges, and pipe connectors. (Burnett 2009)
In addition to unintentional leaks, a number of sources intentionally vent gas. For example,
one technology used throughout natural gas systems is pneumatic valves, which operate on
pressurized natural gas and bleed small quantities of gas during normal operations. Gas is
also often vented from storage tanks, dehydrators, depressurization of equipment before
maintenance, and wells after hydraulic fracturing, or when accumulated liquids are
removed. Within the oil sector, nearly all methane emissions come from production fields
in the form of venting oil wells, storage tanks, and processing equipment. (Alvarez 2012)
Vented emissions from natural gas operations consist predominantly of methane, but often
