Description
We measured fluxes of methane, non-methane hydrocarbons, and carbon dioxide from natural gas well pad soils and from nearby undisturbed soils in eastern Utah. Methane fluxes varied from less than zero to more than 38,000 mg m-2 h-1. Fluxes from well pad soils were almost always greater than from undisturbed soils. Fluxes were greater from locations with higher concentrations of total combustible gas in soil and were inversely correlated with distance from well heads. Several lines of evidence show that the majority of emission fluxes (about 70%) were due to subsurface sources of raw gas that migrated to the atmosphere, with the remainder likely caused by re-emission of spilled liquid hydrocarbons. Total hydrocarbon fluxes in summer were only 27% as high as during winter, likely because soil bacteria consumed the majority of hydrocarbons during summer months, converting them to carbon dioxide. While this study shows that well pad soils are a meaningful hydrocarbon emission source at some wells, well pad soil emissions are not significant relative to the oil and gas industry overall. We estimate that well pad soils account for much less than 1% of total emissions of methane and non-methane hydrocarbons from the oil and gas industry in Utah's Uinta Basin.
Author ORCID Identifier
Seth Lyman https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8493-9522
OCLC
1059131574
Document Type
Dataset
DCMI Type
Dataset
File Format
.csv
Publication Date
7-5-2017
Funder
US Dept. of Interior, Bureau of Land Management
US Dept. of Energy
Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America
Publisher
Utah State University
Award Number
US Dept. of Interior, Bureau of Land Management L13AC00292; US Dept. of Energy 12122-15
Methodology
see associated publication for collection and processing of data.
Location
Eastern Utah
Language
eng
Code Lists
See the ReadMe file for descriptions of parameters and variables.
Disciplines
Environmental Monitoring
License
This work has been identified with a Creative Commons Public Domain Mark 1.0.
Recommended Citation
Lyman, S. (2017). Fluxes of methane, non-methane hydrocarbons and carbon dioxide from natural gas well pad soils in Eastern Utah. Utah State University. https://doi.org/10.15142/T3J63H
Checksum
cdc187ace4a695b03952156667d441c3
Additional Files
ReadMe.txt (8 kB)d15eb095a1b820193c103c6157789a2f
Final_SoilEmissDBase_anym_July2017.csv (143 kB)
MD5: 44ca44247fc498df6b6da826a66ecf22