Pittsburgh-based PennEnergy Resources LLC announced this week that the company has received a top industry certification for substantially reducing methane emissions from its natural gas production.
“PennEnergy is committed to continuous improvements in facility design, operation, and maintenance, as well as upgrading legacy assets, which allows for emissions mitigation and reduction across our field,” said Greg Muse, PennEnergy Resources president and COO. “This is complemented by internal operator training programs specifically aimed at environmental compliance and emissions minimization.”
Specifically, the privately-held PennEnergy, a natural gas exploration and production company, achieved “Grade A” certification across its entire operating asset through MiQ’s Methane Emissions Performance Standard.
PennEnergy’s certification “demonstrates the company’s commitment to reducing methane emissions from its natural gas production,” said Georges Tijbosch, CEO of MiQ, an independent not-for-profit established by Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) and SYSTEMIQ Ltd. that facilitates the rapid reduction in methane emissions from the oil and gas sector.
The organization conducts certification for its standard by accredited, third-party auditors that assess and assign an A to F grade for methane emissions performance, according to the organization.
The MiQ standard, developed in a partnership between RMI and SYSTEMIQ, differentiates producers that excel in methane mitigation, advanced technology deployment, and environmental stewardship.
PennEnergy achieved top marks in all three MiQ scoring categories: methane intensity, which is the percentage of methane emitted to atmosphere vs. methane produced as a product; monitoring technology deployment; and company practices.
To achieve an A grade regarding emissions, PennEnergy had to demonstrate to third-party MiQ auditors that its methane intensity is below 0.05 percent.
“MiQ’s standard for assessing methane emission’s performance from the production of natural gas acknowledges the measures PennEnergy took to account for and eliminate methane emissions from its current assets,” MiQ’s Tijbosch said.
“The culminating result of these efforts is an operation which not only drives its methane emissions intensity down year over year,” added PennEnergy’s Muse, “but is at the point where it obtains the highest level MiQ grade and is also significantly lower than the taxable emissions limit [0.20 percent] established by the IRS in the Inflation Reduction Act.”