Oil and Gas Work Group

Overview

Oil and gas exploration and production activities are significant air pollution sources in the western United States. There is wide variation by basin, in terms of the types of wells and equipment operated and quantities of hydrocarbons produced, the number of wells to be maintained and to be newly drilled, the extraction practices and emission control technology applied in the drilling-completion-maintenance-production activities. Taxes on produced hydrocarbon resources fund state, tribal, and federal governments, and the commodity prices are subject to wide variation affecting both existing production and emissions, as well as development of new and/or replacement wells.

With the oil and gas sector continuing to experience rapid change and innovation over time, air regulatory agencies are responding to health and welfare issues under the federal Clean Air Act as well as through state and tribal authorities. These include jurisdiction-wide emissions reporting and control requirements, linked to efforts to address local issues and impacts. In the WESTAR-WRAP region, oil and gas exploration and production activity is concentrated in California, Alaska, and the Intermountain Region, with emissions management by states, tribes, and EPA. The produced hydrocarbons are transported with various methods for further processing and are then used in dozens or hundreds of products. The use of produced hydrocarbons for power, industrial, and commercial applications is ubiquitous in the U.S. and other well-developed economies.

Studies point to the need for improvements in the exploration and production emissions inventory to make those estimates more consistent, accurate, and complete across the various jurisdictions, as being one of the most needed datasets for air quality planning. Related analysis needs include:

More fully and more accurately characterizing emissions from individual exploration and production equipment and activity processes for emission inventory and air quality planning purposes;
Better understanding of results from top-down vs. bottom-up emissions and flux studies;
Identifying methods to address the super-emitter phenomena across the many types of production and differing geographic areas; and
Improving emissions estimates for leaking and venting of tanks and other systems.

The Oil and Gas Work Group (OGWG) efforts on these analysis topics will improve reported data quality, performance of air quality models, and exposure estimates. The OGWG also has an important role to coordinate regional communication and knowledge-sharing among WESTAR-WRAP members. The OGWG will address the members’ programs and data collection. The OGWG will provide oversight and coordinate efforts with projects and activities for WESTAR-WRAP and with other groups related to Oil and Gas.

Duties & Products

The Fire and Smoke Work Group (FSWG) will focus on, address, organize work, and report on:

Smoke Emissions and Modeling:
- Coordinating analysis and planning activities related to improving and tracking fire activity data to support and deliver emissions inventories for smoke emissions
- Review the treatment of fire and smoke emissions in modeling studies
Smoke Management Planning and Coordination:
- Support planning work to assess the historic and range of future year air quality impacts from fire
- Identify and improve communication and collaboration for Smoke Management Programs
- Improve coordination between state, tribal, local, and federal agencies
- Establish a common framework to define frequently used terms and ideas to promote communication and understanding between state, tribal, local, and federal agencies
Exceptional Events Support
- Track and facilitate information about Exceptional Events assessment efforts

Operations & Reporting

The Co-Chairs will provide a summary report to the TSC at each TSC/WG Co-Chairs meeting, about the status of activities, findings, and work products for the topics described above. The Co-Chairs, with support from WESTAR-WRAP staff, will maintain an active open membership composed of interested state, tribal, local, and federal air agency and land manager experts, and publish the OGWG membership list and track participation on the Oil & Gas Work Group web page. No formal detailed workplan is required but welcome. The OGWG will have regular virtual or in-person meetings every 4 months to manage activities and provide oversight to projects. Subcommittees or Teams to be defined by the OGWG will execute, track, and provide oversight for both in-kind and/or contractor-supported OGWG projects and will meet at self-defined separate intervals. The task-oriented topics and responsibilities for a Subcommittee or Team will be a subset of the bulleted topics above from this Responsibilities and Deliverables section. The leads for Teams and Subcommittees will meet monthly with the OGWG Co-Chairs to note progress. The topics above will need additional clarification and definition in the process of defining a Subcommittee’s or a Team’s scopes, assignments, and intended deliverables in writing. Any Teams and Subcommittees will report regularly to the OGWG. The OGWG Co-Chairs will plan and direct the regular calls and meetings, and with assistance from WESTAR-WRAP staff, take the lead in communications and other necessary TSC and Board interaction.

Active Projects

Work Products & Materials

OGWG Analysis (November 2021-January 2022)

WESTAR-WRAP Region Oil and Gas Emission Inventory Refinement (additional work for BLM – leverages OGWG products below)

OGWG Work Products:

OGWG Projected Emissions from Baseline Year Emissions Inventory
1. Final Report (March 5, 2020) and Inventory Spreadsheet (final version of March 5, 2020) for the “Continuation of Historical Trends” projection inventory. These data will be used in modeling and control analyses for Regional Haze planning.
2. State of Colorado projections methodology (PDF) (January 2, 2020, data are included in the Final Report and Inventory Spreadsheet above).
3. State of New Mexico updated projections data from early Feb. 2020 are included in the Final Report and Inventory Spreadsheet above.
OGWG Baseline Year Alaska and Intermountain Region Emissions Inventory revised final deliverables – Sept. 2019
1. The Revised Final Report and Inventory Spreadsheet were completed in mid-Sept. and posted on Sept. 23, 2019. These files completely replace the previously posted July 2019 report and spreadsheet, while the gas profile information posted in July is unchanged. The July report and spreadsheet files have been removed to avoid confusion. The Revised Final Report includes updates from the July postings to include the: 1) Colorado O&G emissions based on new inventories provided by Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and Southern Ute Indian Tribe and 2) Williston Basin casinghead gas emission inventory to correct emissions that were biased low based on EPA O&G Tool inputs.
OGWG Emissions Survey for State Air Agencies and O&G Operators
1. Complete survey (January 2019)
2. Fleet turnover and controls-focused survey (January 2019)

OGWG Road Map: Phase I Report (Consensus on April 16, 2018) – Appendix A (On-the-Books Regulations Tables)
WRAP OGWG Road Map Scope of Work (Consensus on October 10, 2017)
1. Identification and Review of Oil & Gas Specific Projection Methodologies and Work Products [to be completed by early 2018]
2. Base Year and Future Year Oil & Gas Emissions Inventories [to be completed by mid-2019]
3. Identification and Review of Member Agency Oil & Gas Programs and Emissions Management [to be completed in 2018]
WRAP OGWG Oil and Gas Emission Sources (Consensus on October 17, 2017)
WRAP OGWG 2017 Workplan (Consensus on January 10, 2017)

Work Group Meetings

2022

2022-08-16 OGWG Regular Meeting (scheduled)

2022-04-28 Survey implementation Logistics Meeting

2022-04-12 OGWG Regular Meeting

2022-03-22 Focus Area Implementation Meeting #3

2022-03-01 2020 EPA O&G Emissions Tool Discussion with EPA

2022-02-22 Focus Area Implementation Meeting #2

2022-01-25 Focus Area Implementation Meeting #1 (kick-off)

Agenda

2021

2021-11-30

2021-09-30 – Draft Work Plan Scope – Special Call

2021-08-03

2021-03-30

2020

2020-12-08

2020-08-11

Agenda/Notes

2020-04-14

Agenda/Notes
2016 Collaborative Emissions Platform integration of WRAP O&G data – Jeff Vukovich, EPA

2020-02-11

Agenda/Notes
Agency Program Review (Feb06_2020 draft) PDF
Agency Program Review Supplement (Feb06_2020 draft) XLS
ARCS Memo (Feb06_2020 draft) PDF
ARCS Table (Feb06_+2020 draft) XLS
OGWG NM OGEI 2028OTB adjustments (Feb11_2020) PDF
Summary of SoW to obtain cost proposal for Add-on Tasks to current WESTAR / IWDW-WAQS contracted modeling effort (Feb6_2020)
EDF Permian Basin Methane Campaign PDF

2019

2019-12-10

Agenda/Notes
Phase II Status Update
2016 EMP O&G WG status report – Tom Richardson, OK DEQ
final draft edition (August 5, 2019) of EN3’s comparative evaluation of inventories of tribal oil- and gas-production-related emissions sources – Tom Moore and Charlie Schlinger, EN3

2019-10-08

2019-10-01

2019-08-13

2019-6-11

2019-4-9

2019-2-12

2019-1-22 – Special Call

Notes

2018

2018-12-11 (scheduled)

2018-10-09

2018-08-14

Agenda/Notes
Update: OGWG Roadmap Phase II, John Grant, Ramboll
- 2014 base case emission inventory spreadsheet – for OGWG review
- 2014 oil and gas activity spreadsheet – for OGWG review

2018-06-12

2018-04-09

2018-02-13

2018-01-24 – Special Call (rescheduled from 2018-01-17)

Other Resources

National Oil & Gas Emissions Committee’s Information Repository, hosted by the Intermountain West Data Warehouse – Western Air Quality Study (IWDW-WAQS), stores and allows access to information of interest to state air agencies, EPA, and others about Oil and Gas activity and emissions data, and supporting information across the U.S.
Links to Relevant Documents and Projects(2017-11-07)
MEMO: 2014 Oil and Gas Intermountain West Criteria Pollutant Emission Inventories for Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming (June 8, 2017)
Trinity Consultants training slides on O&G Emissions Regulations (Summer 2018)
Trinity Consultants training slides on O&G NSPS OOOO Regulations (Summer 2018)

Oil and Gas Work Group

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