JGC : Technical Review Completed on Management and Reduction of Methane and Other GHG Emissions at Offshore Natural Gas Sites in Malaysia

Apr. 10, 2024

- Toward providing methane emissions control solutions to meet global needs -

JGC Holdings Corporation is pleased to announce that overseas EPC operating company JGC Corporation has been selected by the Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security to commission a study involving technical reviews and formulation of methane and other GHG¹ emissions control and reduction methods at offshore production facilities. A technical study focued on GHG emissions control and reduction methods to be deployed at selected offshore natural gas production facilities of the Malaysia state-owned oil & gas company, Petroliam Nasional Berhad (PETRONAS).

1. Project overview

From November 2023to March 2024, JGC Corporation applied advanced technologies including its HiGHGuard®² GHG emissions quantification service at selected PETRONAS natural gas production facilities off the coast of Sarawak to formulate an optimal methane emissions measurement method.　

Generally, offshore production facilities have smaller footprint, narrower and more complex than onshore facilities, with wind and sea reflection affecting the measurement. For this reason, determining a suitable and accurate way to detect and measure methane emissions has been considered challenging. Additionally, JGC Corporation has participated in the establishment of JOGMEC CI guidelines³ to calculate carbon intensity throughout the energy supply chain and has gained more expertise in GHG emissions quantification, as used in several overseas GHG emissions calculation projects. This experience, combined with our niche technical expertise has been applied in the current project, which includes formulating methods for detecting and measuring methane in challenging offshore production environments.

The formulation of top-down measurement to determine facility-wide methane emissions with drones, fixed sensors and other means has been supported along with reconciliation against bottom-up measurement conducted by PETRONAS to determine emissions from each source through measurements and calculations. These top-down measurement technologies have been verified at an R&D center of JGC Holdings in Oarai, Ibaraki.

JGC also establishes overseas partnerships with relevant experts including Aeromon (Finland) and SeekOps (U.S.), specializing in methane emissions detection and quantification from drone-based measurement, and Project Canary (U.S.) and SLB (U.S.) etc., that have been involved in quantification using technologies such as fixed sensors.

2. Project background

To address the considerable global warming potential⁴ of methane, which is about 28-84 times greater than that of CO₂, the Global Methane Pledge was launched in September 2021 as an international initiative aimed at reducing methane emissions. Although CO₂ emissions from natural gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) are relatively low during combustion, there is a need to reduce GHG emissions from methane and other energy sources across the supply chain of natural gas production, liquefaction, transportation, and other sectors.

As two of the world's leading importers and producers of LNG, Global Methane Pledge signatories Japan and Malaysia are accelerating efforts to detect, measure and reduce methane emissions throughout the chain. In March of 2023, JOGMEC and PETRONAS executed a memorandum of cooperation⁵ on creating lower-carbon solutions, leading to the implementation of this project.

As a leading technical services provider specializing in natural gas processing and LNG production facilities, the JGC Group has contributed in the design and construction of all onshore LNG plants in Malaysia for nearly 40 years. We have also gained insights and experiences in methods and technologies needed to detect and quantify methane emissions, as well as to reduce overall GHG emissions at various facilities. In February of 2023, the first facility in Asia for evaluating technologies to detect and quantify methane leaks from oil and natural gas facilities was built at an R&D center of JGC Holdings,⁶ in partnership with domestic and overseas companies. The activities here include evaluating new technologies, studying use in the field and providing technical development support to other companies.

The JGC Group will continue to contribute to a smooth energy transition by applying our superior GHG emissions quantification and plant engineering technologies to build facilities with low GHG emissions throughout the supply chain, as sought by for a decarbonized society.

1: Greenhouse gas. Refers to gases that cause an atmospheric greenhouse effect.

2: https://www.jgc.com/en/business/oil-gas/lng/highguard/#1

3: https://www.jogmec.go.jp/english/news/release/news_10_00037.html

4: A numerical value indicating the degree of impact on global warming. Methane has a GWP about 84 times higher than CO₂ over 20 years and 28 times higher over 100 years as per IPCC ar5.

5: https://www.jogmec.go.jp/english/news/release/news_10_00027.html

6: The facility for evaluating methane emission measurement technologies at the R&D center in Oarai is shown below.