Natural gas producers and transporters play a critical role in supplying the world with reliable and affordable energy.  The displacement of coal by natural gas fired power plants has contributed significantly to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. As the world embraces a transition towards a lower emissions economy, responsible sourcing and environmental considerations have become critical factors in assessing the credibility and environmental impact of the oil and gas industry.

In this article, we cover some of the key factors and issues surrounding responsibly sourced natural gas (RSG).

What is Certified Natural Gas (Certified Gas)?

Certified gas is natural gas produced by operations that meet independently assessed and verified ESG standards, including air emissions monitoring and reduction requirements. Certified gas, often referred to as Responsibly Sourced Gas or RSG, is produced from wells and facilities that an independent third-party attest to the technical and environmental standards present at the wellhead and processing facilities.

Generically, various certifications evaluate factors covering air emissions, well integrity, water quality, processing facilities, land disruption and impact on local communities. Operations that meet the certification criteria qualify as supplying “certified gas.”

Obtaining certification requires an operator to provide transparency into technical documents, operational practices and grant access for inspections of well sites and facilities to verify standards are met at the time of inspection and/or monitoring of air emissions to confirm ongoing compliance.

Independent organizations and companies that offer natural gas certifications typically offer different levels of certification, depending on several factors. One key factor is the level of methane intensity, or the amount of methane an operation emits to the atmosphere relative to its production rate or throughput.

Responsibly sourced gas (RSG) is natural gas that an independent third party has verified as meeting the highest standards and practices to minimize the environmental footprint.

– Williams Companies

What’s In a Name?

The aim of organizations offering responsibly sourced gas certifications is to create an ethical brand standard for natural gas, like other commodities. For example, Fairtrade Certified Coffee, The Kimberley Process for conflict-free diamonds and the Dolphin-Safe Tuna label are ethical brand standards adopted by companies to assure customers that their products minimize potential negative impacts to the environment, humans, and animal life.

As certified gas becomes more common, there is competition for what to call it as certification companies seek to become the dominant ethical brand standard. Examples include “independently certified gas” (ICG) and “responsibly sourced gas” (RSG) and “independently certified responsibly sourced gas.”

Regardless of name, what all natural gas certifications have in common is identifying natural gas that has been produced from operations meeting the highest levels of environmental performance.

Certification Process

Williams Companies was one of the first natural gas transporters to recognize and define the quantification, monitoring, reporting, and verification (QMRV) process for certifying gas as “responsibly sourced.” The QMRV process is widely accepted by both industry and certification bodies.  A summary of the four principles is:  

• Quantification is the ability to measure emissions through technology rather than through estimated or factor-based calculations.
• Monitoring using measurement technology to identify emission events, improve emission data accuracy while increasing data transparency and confidence.
• Reporting associated emissions involves providing transparency for measured or calculated emissions data.
• Verification means reported information is periodically subjected to independent review compared to an organization’s standard, to establish completeness, reliability, and positive environmental impact.

Source: Williams Companies

Why Certify Your Natural Gas?

The time and expense required to obtain a responsibly sourced gas certification is not trivial, so why incur it? There are currently two primary reasons:

• Establish a preference with end users, especially residential, commercial, and industrial consumers.
• Certified gas is expected to fetch a higher price than non-certified commodity production.

If a company like Amazon Web Services (AWS) can report that a significant majority or all the power used in its operations is responsibly sourced, then it can demonstrate to both investors and customers that it is minimizing its impact on emissions and climate change, hence, reducing the business’ climate risk.

Waiting in the wings, however, are potential federal requirements. Currently, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is promulgating rules mandating the disclosure of climate risks from publicly traded companies. The rule proposal would require U.S. publicly traded companies to disclose annually how their businesses are assessing, measuring, and managing climate-related risks. If the rules become effective, certified gas may help meet future disclosure requirements.

What All Certifications Have in Common – Air Emissions

All natural gas certifications require monitoring of air emissions from well sites and facilities. We cover the various emissions monitoring methods in our white paper, White Paper: Best Practices for Emissions Monitoring in the Energy Sector.

Know that you have a choice when selecting emissions monitoring providers. Although some gas certifiers offer their own emissions monitoring solution, all accept data from third-party monitoring providers. That is important because not every monitoring solution is right for every operator, given each operator’s systems, operations, reporting needs and allocated budget.

When choosing an emissions monitoring method, it is critical to first define what your objectives are for the monitoring program.

• Simple compliance with regulatory requirements.
• Capitalizing on certified gas markets.
• Minimizing investment risk.
• Strategic emissions detection and mitigation.
• Achieving corporate environmental performance goals and stakeholders demands.

Depending on your objectives for emissions monitoring, there are several options to fit your needs and budget.

The Encino Environmental Advantage

Encino is a pioneer in emissions monitoring in the Energy sector, providing clients with a complete range of environmental services. 

We view ourselves as an oilfield services company, dedicated to helping Oil & Gas operators improve their environmental and economic sustainability for providing the world with reliable and affordable energy. 

Contact us today for a free consultation and evaluation of how Encino can help you achieve environmental performance that generates economic results.

About Encino Environmental Services

Formed in 2010 and headquartered in Houston, Texas, Encino Environmental Services, LLC is an emissions performance testing and monitoring firm that specializes in environmental consulting, combustion analysis, LDAR (leak detection and repair), CEMS (continuous emissions monitoring systems), Remote Sensing technologies utilizing satellite methane emissions monitoring and advanced environmental data platforms for the measurement and minimization of emissions to support regulatory compliance and ESG strategies and objectives. The Company operates across the U.S. covering all major oil and gas basins and select international markets.