On December 20, the EPA and the Department of Energy announced it was providing $850 million for 43 projects n that will help small oil and gas operators, Tribes, and other entities across the country to reduce, monitor, measure, and quantify methane emissions from the oil and gas sector.
The funding is part of the plan to realize the finalization of an EPA rule that is expected to reduce methane emissions from covered oil and gas sources by 80% from 2024 to 2038.
U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm noted that the funds will help “support small operators' ability to replace and upgrade old equipment, reducing emissions from marginal conventional wells, improving their supply chains to meet the growing market expectations for cleaner fuel sources.”
The selected projects funded by the Inflation Reduction Act will, through innovative technologies, enhance emissions measurement and provide transparent data to affected communities.
These projects build on the $350 million in grant funding to states that EPA and DOE announced in December 2023 to support industry efforts to voluntarily reduce emissions at low-producing wells, monitor emissions, and conduct environmental restoration at well pads. Together, these investments are a key step in implementing the Methane Emissions Reduction Program.
Two private companies, 11 universities, and one Tribal consortium, were selected for projects to deploy and test new and existing methane mitigation technologies:
- Three projects will help small operators across the country significantly reduce methane emissions from low-producing oil and natural gas operations, using commercially available technology solutions.
- Thirty-one projects will accelerate the deployment of early-commercial technology solutions to reduce methane emissions from new and existing equipment.
- Four projects will improve communities’ access to empirical emissions data and participation in monitoring methane emissions.
- Five projects will enhance the detection and measurement of methane emissions from oil and gas operations at a regional scale.
In total, EPA and DOE are partnering to provide $1.36 billion in financial and technical assistance as part of the Inflation Reduction Act’s Methane Emissions Reduction Program. DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory, under the purview of DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management, will manage the selected projects. Learn more about the selected projects.