Save for later Print Download Share LinkedIn Twitter Leading US LNG exporters Cheniere Energy and Sempra Energy are partnering with scientists to study decarbonization, which has become a key battleground among the world's LNG suppliers (NGW May10'21). Cheniere announced last week that it will collaborate with five natural gas producers and several academic institutions to implement quantification, monitoring, reporting and verification of greenhouse gas emissions performance at gas production sites. Cheniere plans to begin providing its customers with emissions data in the form of Carbon Emissions Tags (CE Tags) for each LNG cargo produced at its Sabine Pass and Corpus Christi liquefaction plants, starting in 2022 (NGW Mar.1'21). “This collaboration reinforces our data-driven environmental transparency, supports our CE Tags and enhances our efforts with natural gas suppliers to monitor and verify emissions to maximize the climate benefits of Cheniere’s LNG," said Jack Fusco, president and CEO of Cheniere. The producers participating in the project are Aethon Energy, Ascent Resources-Utica, EQT, Indigo Natural Resources and Pioneer Natural Resources. “Collaboration with our natural gas suppliers is a key component of Cheniere’s focus on quantifying and improving environmental performance,” said Fusco. He previously acknowledged the difficulty of tracking carbon from the 26 different gas pipelines that supply Cheniere's two LNG export plants. The initial effort, Cheniere said, will cover production wells in the Haynesville, Marcellus and Utica Shales as well as the Permian Basin. "This collaborative R&D initiative will utilize multiple ground-based, drone, aerial, and satellite monitoring technologies to establish baseline emissions levels," Cheniere said. The project will monitor sites for carbon dioxide and for both fugitive and vented methane emissions. Sempra, DOE Team Up Meanwhile, Sempra signed a memorandum of understanding with the US Department of Energy's (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), providing a framework for a joint effort to advance future net-zero energy systems (NGW May17'21). Sempra and NREL have been collaborating for nearly a decade on projects exploring the development, access and integration of low-carbon fuels and microgrid technology. However, these efforts have mostly involved Sempra's utility segment and not LNG. The latest effort also appears largely utility-focused but with likely impact in the LNG space as well. "To achieve global carbon neutrality, energy systems will need to transform dramatically over the coming decades. Our partnership with NREL drives forward a vision to advance the energy systems of the future by focusing on innovation and resiliency," said Lisa Alexander, senior vice president of corporate affairs and chief sustainability officer for Sempra. Michael Sultan, Washington
