Colombian Ministry of Mines and Energy (MinEnergía) and Universidad Nacional de Colombia
Developing a Bottom-Up Methane Fugitive Emission Inventory in Colombia
The Colombian
Ministry of Mines and Energy (MinEnergía) is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by
approximately 11 million tons carbon dioxide equivalent (MMTCO2e) by 2030. About 30
percent of the
reductions are expected to come from the mitigation of methane fugitive emissions (MFE) from oil and
gas production and refining. These expectations are derived from estimates of MFE that are based on
a “top-down” inventory, which has been determined to have a high degree of uncertainty because the
data reflect only a small sample of oil and gas sites in Colombia. In response, the Universidad Nacional de Colombia is providing
scientific and technical support to MinEnergía to create a “bottom-up” MFE inventory.
Developing the bottom-up MFE inventory will:
- Enable the selection of priority sites to take on-site measurements of MFE
- Validate estimation methodologies used to develop the inventory
- Establish more accurate emission factors for specific conditions
- Provide valid data to help assess the technical and economic feasibility of mitigation efforts at the field scale
The ultimate goal of this program is to produce an MFE inventory that is scientifically sound and representative of the oil and gas fields in Colombia, including those that are located far from gas pipelines and the power grid. MinEnergía recognizes that high quality, bottom-up MFE estimations rely on obtaining detailed information from oil and gas companies. Improved transparency and communications with those companies will also represent significant progress towards achieving Colombia’s methane mitigation goals.