CARBON CREDIT LANDSCAPE

Totality’s Registry is established as an engineered carbon solution (“Totality Greenhouse Gases Abatement Methodology” or the “Methodology”) to abate greenhouse gases (“GHG”, typically arising from methane leaks) through the plugging & abandoning of oil and/or natural gas wells.

The Methodology addresses the measurement of a well’s emissions, an inherently complex undertaking given a well’s individual physical attributes, location and surrounding conditions. Usually, handheld devices, such as gas sniffers, can be utilized to detect the presence of gases and can be configured for combustible gases and/or other gases of interest.

Totality’s Methodology requires a Project Developer to analyze and measure a well’s gas concentrations, such as parts per million or percent volume, as well as its molecular composition and emissions flow rate. Optical gas imaging (“OGI”) cameras[7] are expensive and typically do not provide a concentration or flow rate, though algorithms are being refined to do so. OGI cameras are primarily designed for visualizing leaks from oil and gas infrastructure, limiting their use to detecting the presence or absence of gas. Emissions rates can be measured using high volume samplers, static and dynamic chambers, and combinations of various techniques. Due to the rapidly changing nature of technology and methods for measuring methane leaking from orphaned wells, novel approaches are under review (e.g., optical absorption spectroscopy).

In a study of 568 abandoned wells in the US states of OH, WY, UT, CO, PA, and WV, and Canadian provinces of NB and BC, reported methane emission rates range from 1.8 × 10-3 grams/hour to 48 grams/hour per well depending on the plugging status, well type, and region, with the overall average at 6.0 grams/hour.[8] Studies of Appalachian Basin wells known as “Kang et al. 2016” and “Williams-Small et al. 2016” have been cited at 31 grams/hour and 28.01 grams/hour per well of methane emission factors, respectively.