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ONE Future, one goal: 1% methane emissions

Published: August 12, 2020

Enbridge joins coalition of America’s largest and most sustainable-minded natural gas players

Apologies to Three Dog Night—but in this case, ONE is an increasingly powerful number.

This week, Enbridge became the 27th member of the Our Nation’s Energy (ONE) Future coalition, a group of forward-thinking U.S. natural gas companies working together to minimize methane emissions and ensure the future of natural gas as a long-term clean energy source.

ONE Future consists of some of the largest natural gas gathering and boosting, production, processing, transmission and storage, and distribution companies in the country, collectively representing about 15% of the nation’s natural gas value chain.

The coalition’s ambitious goal is to voluntarily reduce methane emissions across that value chain to 1%--or less—by 2025.

With the Texas Eastern pipeline as its backbone, Enbridge’s natural gas gathering and transmission pipeline network travels about 23,850 miles across 30 U.S. states, as well as five Canadian provinces and offshore in the Gulf of Mexico.

Enbridge moves about 20% of the natural gas consumed in the U.S., and also has about 159 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of underground natural gas storage across the country.

As a ONE Future member, Enbridge will report yearly methane emission reduction results as part of the transmission and storage sector, as well as holding a seat on the ONE Future board of directors.

“As global population grows, continued economic development depends on access to more affordable and reliable energy. At the same time, the world needs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” says Bill Yardley, Enbridge’s Executive Vice President of Gas Transmission and Midstream.

“As a large player in the U.S. natural gas transmission and storage sector, Enbridge is proactively addressing our methane emissions. Joining a coalition like ONE Future, where information is shared and abatement technology is accelerated through collaboration, was a natural step for us,” he adds.

The ONE Future coalition aims to ensure the future of natural gas as a long-term clean energy source, and has already offered evidence that its 1% methane reduction target is achievable.

ONE Future’s 2018 Methane Intensity Report was released in the fall of 2019, showing that the coalition registered a 2018 methane intensity number of 0.326%—a decrease of 41% from 2017.

Each sector had a meaningful decrease in methane intensity, while seeing a rise in production and throughput.ONE Future members achieved the following cumulative results from 2017 to 2018:

  • Production: Reduced intensity rate 52% while increasing throughput 18%
  • Gathering and bosting: Reduced intensity rate 70%, while throughput volumes increased 262%
  • Processing: Reduced intensity rate 38%, while increasing throughput 806%
  • Transmission and storage: Reduced intensity rate 27%, while increasing throughput 51%
  • Distribution: Reduced intensity rate 11%, while increasing throughput 9%.

These reductions have been largely achieved through targeted investments in abatement technologies (including leak surveys, pipeline isolation systems and the use of sleeves during repair work) which have led to significant improvements in environmental performance and supply chain efficiency.

“Enbridge has a storied history of providing safe, reliable energy to its customers across North America, and we’re pleased they joined the ONE Future coalition,” says Richard Hyde, Executive Director of ONE Future. “It’s exciting to see the growing commitment of the natural gas industry to reduce methane emissions—all while supplying much-needed clean, inexpensive and reliable energy to the U.S. and around the globe for years to come.”

(TOP IMAGE: Employees at an Enbridge compressor station near Mount Pleasant, Tennessee.)

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