A Comparison of the Effectiveness of Regulated OGI Leak Detection and Repair (LDAR) Surveys and Aerial Measurements in the Real-World

Periodic comprehensive or screening leak detection and repair (LDAR) surveys are a central part of many current regulations, which are intended to reduce unintentional methane emissions caused by leaking infrastructure.  In principle, by swiftly identifying and repairing leaks, emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, are reduced.  The primary tools used for comprehensive LDAR surveys are Optical Gas Imaging (OGI) cameras.  While OGI can be effective for detecting and visualizing methane leaks, its extension to quantitative measurement (QOGI) is notoriously imprecise.  Moreover, studies have shown considerable variation in the performance of OGI in practice, where successful use is heavily dependent on the skill of the operator. 

Manual OGI surveys are also time consuming and labour intensive.  Implementing and maintaining an effective LDAR program that involves multiple OGI surveys per facility can be costly, potentially disrupting routine operations while requiring the deployment of trained personnel to each site.  Although operators are obligated to address and verify the repair of identified leaks, there is also still potential that significant leaks may be allowed to persist if they are not initially detected.  Consequently, despite the substantial costs involved, the full potential of methane reduction benefits may not be realized.  By contrast, aerial surveys have the potential to overcome many of the negatives associated with OGI surveys. In particular, aerial surveys can permit large numbers of sites to be surveyed per day at significantly lower cost per site, reducing overall compliance costs, labour requirements, and improving safety through reduced risks.  However, there remains no objective way to assess the relative performance of aerial surveys in complementing or replacing LDAR surveys under different scenarios.  In the context of emerging regulations, this is an especially important topic.

This work seeks to directly compare the effectiveness of conventional OGI surveys and aerial measurement under real-world conditions.  At an identical set of approximately 500 operating oil and gas sites in British Columbia, Canada, we compare and contrast detected and quantified sources in regulated LDAR surveys with parallel aerial surveys completed using Bridger Photonics’ Gas Mapping LiDAR (GML) technology.  The publicly reported LDAR reports are parsed to analyze patterns in detected emissions on 1 and 3 times per year deployments which are contrasted with aerial measurements at the same set of sites.  This direct contrast under real world conditions gives one of the first large scale tests of LDAR and aerial performance in practice, helping to provide quantitative guidance for the design of potential alternative LDAR programs under emerging regulatory scenarios.