Over the past couple of years, a growing number of natural gas producers — from global integrateds like ExxonMobil, Chevron and BP to E&Ps large, medium and small — have contracted with entities like MiQ and Project Canary to scrutinize their upstream operations and score their relative success in minimizing methane emissions. By some estimates, as much as one-third of U.S. gas production is already “certified” or “differentiated,” and with growing interest in “low-emissions” gas among domestic and international buyers the trend seems likely to accelerate. In today’s RBN blog, we continue our look at certified/differentiated gas with a review of the gas producers leading the way.
In this blog series, we’re examining the certified/differentiated gas ”movement” from just about every angle. In Part 1, we said there are a variety of efforts underway to make the natural gas piece of the global energy puzzle as clean as it can be. The primary focus of these efforts is on reducing as much as possible the amount of methane (CH4) — the main ingredient in natural gas — that is released into the atmosphere along its route from the production well to the end-user’s burner tip. We noted that there’s good reason for zeroing in on methane emissions: Methane is a particularly potent greenhouse gas (GHG), with more than 80 times the atmospheric heat-trapping effect of carbon dioxide (CO2) over the short term (five to 20 years). That means reducing methane emissions along the gas value chain has quick and very positive climate effects.
RBN Energy’s US CO₂ Infrastructure map brings together legacy Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) assets, as well as announced large-scale Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) and Carbon Capture, Utilization and Sequestration (CCUS) projects, all in our signature concise, accurate, and intelligible style.
In Part 2, we focused on the push by natural gas producers to have their gas certified as a “low-emissions” hydrocarbon and differentiated (i.e., scored or assessed) based on the percentage of methane that escapes into the atmosphere during the production process, with higher marks being given to gas with a lower methane intensity (MI). We also discussed the proactive steps producers are taking to reduce their MI — things like upgrading equipment, accelerating the replacement of compressor seals, and expanding leak detection and repair (LDAR) programs — and the ongoing debate (see Cover Me) about the most effective ways to monitor well sites, pipelines and the rest to ensure good measurements and identify methane leaks. Further, we discussed the two primary alternatives for gas producers seeking to certify or differentiate their gas (MiQ and Project Canary) and noted that as much as one-third of the natural gas being produced in the U.S. each day is certified/differentiated by either MiQ or Project Canary (aka Canary), with MiQ accounting for well over half of those volumes.
Today, we turn our attention to what producers have been doing on the gas certification/differentiation front. Before we get to a company-by-company review, we should make a couple of general observations. One is that while many (and probably most) oil and gas producers are surely tracking developments in the methane emissions-reduction space — and many of these are ramping up their methane-emissions monitoring and LDAR programs — a much smaller number have contracted to have MiQ or Canary put all or part of their production wells under the microscope. A second observation is that, for the most part, many of the dozen-plus producers that have gone all in on certification/differentiation are gas-focused E&Ps in gas-centric production areas like Marcellus/Utica, the Haynesville, and Wyoming’s Green River Basin. That makes perfect sense, given that — so far, at least — many of the gas buyers most interested in low-emissions gas are LNG exporters along the Gulf Coast and gas utilities and other gas buyers in the Northeast, Midwest and West.
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About the song
“Time Has Come Today” was written by Joe and Willie Chambers and appears as the fifth song on side two of the Chambers Brothers’ debut album, The Time Has Come. Joe Chambers wrote the lyrics for the song after attending a lecture at UCLA by counterculture philosopher Timothy Leary. The song is a call to action in the fight for social justice during the tumultuous times of the late 1960s. It was originally recorded by the band in 1966, clocking in at a short 2:27 in length. The band re-recorded it in August 1967, with the full-length album version lasting just over 11 minutes. This version features a high hat with tambourine attached and a cowbell as the main percussive instruments in the song. It presents a lysergic whirlwind of sounds that includes heavy use of tape delay and reverb. The midsection of the tune has fuzzed-out guitar that sounds like angry hornets, amidst howling and screams, all drenched in tape delay that would have put Sam Phillips on a different astral plane with his experiments with slap back tape echo at his studio at 706 Union Avenue in Memphis in 1955. Did someone say, “more cowbell?”, well alrighty then ... my soul has been psychedelicized!
Released as a single (at 4:45 running time) in December 1967, it went to #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart. The full 11:06 LP version was a staple of progressive FM radio stations in the late 1960s, only rivaled by “In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida” for deejays in need of a bathroom break during airtime. The song has appeared in multiple motion pictures and television shows and has been covered by many artists over the years. Personnel on the record were: Lester Chambers (vocals, percussion), Joe and Willie Chambers (guitars), George Chambers (bass, vocals), and Brian Keenan (drums, percussion).
The Time Has Come LP was recorded in Los Angeles between August 1966 and August 1967, with David Rubinson producing. The album was released in November 1967 and went to #4 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart. Two singles were released from the LP.
The Chambers Brothers are an American psychedelic soul band originally from Carthage, MS — they relocated to Los Angeles in the mid-1950s. They started their career playing folk and gospel music but switched to electric guitars and an edgier rock and soul sound in the Vietnam era. The group in its prime consisted of brothers George, Joe, Lester, and Willie Chambers, along with Brian Keenan. They have released seven studio albums, seven live albums, 10 compilation albums and 10 singles. The band still plays occasional shows in the Los Angeles area. Drummer Brian Keenan died in 1985 at the age of 42. Bassist George Chambers died in 2019 at the age of 88.
