Significant Methane Leaks Found from Wells Still in Drilling Process

A new study has found that a small number of gas wells are releasing significant quantities of methane into the air even before they are hydraulically fractured, or fracked.

The paper, published yesterday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is the result of measurements of methane made by flying an airplane over parts of the Marcellus Shale.

The researchers detected a "significant regional flux" of methane, a greenhouse gas with about 30 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide over a 100-year period, coming from an area of gas wells in southwestern Pennsylvania.

"Basically what we observed was very high concentrations in a particular region," said Paul Shepson, a professor of atmospheric chemistry at Purdue University and an author of the study.

On two days of airplane flights over the area, the research team detected high concentrations of methane in the atmosphere.

Significant Methane Leaks Found from Wells Still in Drilling Process -- Study