Benzinga | Jun 10, 2021 09:33AM EDT

EQT Corp. Reports Partnership With Cheniere, Others To Advance Greenhouse Gas Emissions Monitoring Technologies, Protocols

EQT Corporation (NYSE:EQT) today announced that it has joined a project being led by Cheniere Energy, Inc., the largest U.S. producer of liquefied natural gas, and including several other upstream operators and leading academic institutions, with the purpose of advancing quantification, monitoring, reporting and verification ("QMRV") of greenhouse gas ("GHG") emissions performance at natural gas production sites. The project is intended to improve the overall understanding of upstream GHG emissions and further the deployment of advanced monitoring technologies and protocols.



As part of this collaborative R&D initiative, multiple ground-based, aerial, and satellite monitoring technologies will be utilized to establish baseline emissions levels, monitor sites for carbon dioxide emissions and both fugitive and vented methane emissions, verify emissions performance and identify opportunities to reduce emissions. Independent technical experts will verify the emissions data.

EQT's participation in the project will cover 9 wells located in southwestern Pennsylvania. The project will follow a QMRV protocol designed by Cheniere and a QMRV plan jointly developed by Cheniere and EQT, which has been specially tailored to EQT's operations and facilities. EQT will also deploy continuous detection technologies as part of this project.

"Over past year, we have made great strides to measure, forecast and reduce our desktop emissions, and we intend to leverage this data to guide our capital allocation decisions and overall strategy," said Toby Z. Rice, President and CEO of EQT. "We don't intend to stop at just reducing our desktop emissions, though. We are committed to evolving our field emissions measurement capabilities and we believe this QMRV project will help further EQT's, and the industry's, understanding, application and use of best-in-class protocols and emissions monitoring and measurement technologies to help us achieve our global climate goals."

"Collaboration with our natural gas suppliers is a key component of Cheniere's focus on measuring, reducing, and mitigating emissions," said Jack Fusco, CEO of Cheniere Energy, Inc. "EQT is an important teammate in our efforts to provide cleaner sources of energy around the world, and this collaboration will help improve the environmental performance of U.S. natural gas and LNG."

The project is supported by researchers from Harrisburg University of Science and Technology, Payne Institute for Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines, SLR International, and other emissions monitoring technology providers including Montrose Environmental, SeekOps Inc., Bridger Photonics Inc. and GHGSat.

"Verification is the bedrock transparency and the Payne Institute is pleased to be part of this project, as lessons learned will be invaluable to not just participants but to all stakeholders globally as companies and countries develop their GHG mitigation policies," said Dr. Morgan Bazilian, Director of the Payne Institute and Professor of Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines.