High-Resolution Carbon Intensity of United States Natural Gas Supply

High-Resolution Carbon Intensity of United States Natural Gas Supply | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article High-Resolution Carbon Intensity of United States Natural Gas Supply Zhihao Zhang, Jeffrey Rutherford, James Littlefield, Farah Ramadan, and 5 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-5776078/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Understanding the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from natural gas systems is essential for transitioning to a low-carbon economy. This work estimates the well-through-transmission GHG emissions of the US natural gas from one million active wells covering 94% of 2022 US production. This is conducted by creating a high-resolution US oil and gas production area map to harmonize oil and natural gas supply chain data. We systematically integrate methane measurement data from the latest aerial campaigns into natural gas life cycle GHG emission estimates, capturing both methane fugitive (unintentional leakage and loss) and venting (intentional release) as well as a better characterization of super-emitter activities. Over ten public and commercial industry-leading datasets are integrated with an engineering-based unit process life cycle assessment (LCA) model. The estimated total GHG emissions are 631 MMT CO 2 eq, more than twice that of the US Environmental Protection Agency estimates. The average well-through-transmission carbon intensity (CI) for US natural gas is 15.46 gCO 2 eq/MJ, with an upstream (exploration through processing) CI of 12.35 gCO 2 eq/MJ and a midstream (transmission) CI of 3.10 gCO 2 eq/MJ. Methane fugitive and venting account for 73% and 16% of the upstream CIs, respectively, an order of magnitude higher than flaring emissions (1.6%). Reducing the methane fugitive and venting loss rates by 75% would lower the upstream CI by half. Physical sciences/Energy science and technology/Energy modelling Social science/Environmental studies Scientific community and society/Energy and society/Energy policy Earth and environmental sciences/Environmental sciences/Environmental impact Natural gas production & transmission greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions methane fugitive and venting emission mitigation Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files ExtendedData.xlsx Dataset 1 USfieldshapefile.zip Dataset 2 NAGSI.docx Supplementary Information for High-Resolution Carbon Intensity of United States Natural Gas Supply Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-5776078","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":402060185,"identity":"830ed3e4-bdfd-40d5-997d-324f6b344b55","order_by":0,"name":"Zhihao Zhang","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA8UlEQVRIiWNgGAWjYDACCRBRYSMH5lQwMDA2MDAYEKHlTJoxAxuIJloLY9vhxAaitcjPbn728Gvb4fT585ufPThQcU+2gb15mwQ+LYxzjpkby5xLz91wjM3c4MCZYuMGnmNleLUwSySYSUuUWeduYGMwk/7YlpDYIJFjhlcLm0T6N2kJNuZ0+Tb2bxIHQVrk3+DXwgM0U/JDm3MCwzEeM4gWCR78WiQkcsqkgYFsuOFYTpnEgTMJxm08acUW+LTIz0jfJvmjwkZevvn4NokDFQmy/eyHN97ApwUEmHlQfEdIOQgw/iBG1SgYBaNgFIxcAAAzc0lJ3dZr2gAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2284-0687","institution":"Stanford University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Zhihao","middleName":"","lastName":"Zhang","suffix":""},{"id":402060186,"identity":"8901d5ed-d339-42a2-8315-05caad37c889","order_by":1,"name":"Jeffrey Rutherford","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1666-4162","institution":"Highwood Emissions Management","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Jeffrey","middleName":"","lastName":"Rutherford","suffix":""},{"id":402060187,"identity":"49270aa5-79c6-4147-b0ef-b74f164b8a79","order_by":2,"name":"James Littlefield","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2861-7438","institution":"Aramco Americas","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"James","middleName":"","lastName":"Littlefield","suffix":""},{"id":402060188,"identity":"3740b0df-1f90-424b-aeef-8df624d9cde7","order_by":3,"name":"Farah Ramadan","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Aramco Americas","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Farah","middleName":"","lastName":"Ramadan","suffix":""},{"id":402060189,"identity":"8652333c-ff64-4468-9cd8-c605ea3af91b","order_by":4,"name":"Mohamed Ali Saafi","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Aramco Fuel Research Center","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Mohamed","middleName":"Ali","lastName":"Saafi","suffix":""},{"id":402060190,"identity":"8f91c329-2f02-4b84-821d-a8e87b408a4c","order_by":5,"name":"Bo Ren","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7112-7231","institution":"Aramco Americas","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Bo","middleName":"","lastName":"Ren","suffix":""},{"id":402060191,"identity":"b314dc76-a44d-44c9-87de-642ab5a68453","order_by":6,"name":"Muhammad Y Jabbar","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0009-0008-4872-2834","institution":"Saudi Aramco","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Muhammad","middleName":"Y","lastName":"Jabbar","suffix":""},{"id":402060192,"identity":"7f8677bc-fd0a-4888-8347-05db89d21f0d","order_by":7,"name":"Mohammad S. 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This work estimates the well-through-transmission GHG emissions of the US natural gas from one million active wells covering 94% of 2022 US production. This is conducted by creating a high-resolution US oil and gas production area map to harmonize oil and natural gas supply chain data. We systematically integrate methane measurement data from the latest aerial campaigns into natural gas life cycle GHG emission estimates, capturing both methane fugitive (unintentional leakage and loss) and venting (intentional release) as well as a better characterization of super-emitter activities. Over ten public and commercial industry-leading datasets are integrated with an engineering-based unit process life cycle assessment (LCA) model. The estimated total GHG emissions are 631 MMT CO\u003csub\u003e2\u003c/sub\u003eeq, more than twice that of the US Environmental Protection Agency estimates. The average well-through-transmission carbon intensity (CI) for US natural gas is 15.46 gCO\u003csub\u003e2\u003c/sub\u003eeq/MJ, with an upstream (exploration through processing) CI of 12.35 gCO\u003csub\u003e2\u003c/sub\u003eeq/MJ and a midstream (transmission) CI of 3.10 gCO\u003csub\u003e2\u003c/sub\u003eeq/MJ. Methane fugitive and venting account for 73% and 16% of the upstream CIs, respectively, an order of magnitude higher than flaring emissions (1.6%). 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