CHARLESTON, W.Va./London, UK — Northeast Natural Energy (NNE) today announced it will deploy the LUMEN Terrain continuous emissions monitoring technology from Avitas, a Baker Hughes venture, to help achieve independent certification of natural gas production under the MiQ methane standard. In addition to methane certification, NNE will also seek certification under the EO100TM Standard for Responsible Energy Development that covers a broad range of environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria.
LUMEN Terrain will monitor NNE’s natural gas production facilities to enhance the Equitable Origin and MiQ certification process, which includes the company’s entire operating field in North Central West Virginia. This will make NNE the first private equity backed natural gas company to certify its entire field through dual Equitable Origin and MiQ certifications.
“Our team has always focused on operating with the highest environmental standards in the industry and we have been exploring new technologies and certifications for several months,” said Mike John, CEO of Northeast Natural Energy. “We are eager to be the first company in the Marcellus to use the Avitas continuous monitoring system to complement the certification processes of Equitable Origin and MiQ.”
Avitas, a wholly owned subsidiary of Baker Hughes, provides cost effective, digitally enabled technologies that detect, locate, and quantify emissions via continuous monitoring and unmanned aerial systems. LUMEN Terrain’s low-cost continuous monitoring technology delivers real time, actionable data analytics, providing operators with the information they need to address emissions quickly and efficiently. This is the first time LUMEN Terrain will be used for certification.
“We are proud to partner with Northeast Natural Energy in their mission to provide differentiated, certified natural gas,” said Jason Roe, CEO of Avitas. “We believe continuous monitoring is an important solution to reducing emissions across all sectors of the oil and gas industry, and LUMEN Terrain continuous monitoring is best-in-class in terms of scalability, accuracy, and reliability. This is another step forward in helping operators on their energy transition journey and a commitment from Baker Hughes in helping our customers reduce their emissions.”
Equitable Origin has a proven track record of certifying energy production on ESG indicators in accordance with its EO100TM Standard for Responsible Energy Development, a set of rigorous ESG performance targets for energy development projects. Equitable Origin approved assessors will evaluate NNE’s produced natural gas against the five principles of the EO100TM Standard, including corporate governance and ethics; social impacts, human rights and community engagement; Indigenous Peoples’ rights; occupational health & safety and fair labor standards; and environmental impacts, biodiversity and climate change.
Soledad Mills, CEO, Equitable Origin commented: “NNE is a forward-thinking company with a commitment to operating to high standards. We are very excited to be working with them to help them demonstrate their socially and environmentally responsible practices through independent certification.”
MiQ, a non-profit partnership between RMI and SYSTEMIQ, is pioneering a market-based approach to rapidly reduce methane emissions across the natural gas sector. Its quantitative certification standard – the MiQ Standard – factors in methane intensity, company practices, and methane detection. The MiQ Standard embodies a commitment to transparency, accountability, technology independence, and granularity.
Georges Tijbosch, Senior Adviser, MiQ, said: “This is our second project with Equitable Origin in as many weeks and we are delighted to see there is demand and momentum behind certification for natural gas based on ESG and methane emissions. Methane abatement in the oil and gas sector is an urgent and vital action in the fight against climate change. The commitment made by NNE and others to diligently monitor and abate methane – which has 84x the global warming potential of CO2 – is a big step in the right direction.”
Equitable Origin and MiQ’s performance standards require specialized independent, third-party assessments. NNE has selected Responsible Energy Solutions to audit its natural gas production against the Equitable Origin and MiQ standards.
NNE anticipates that the certified natural gas, sometimes referred to as responsibly sourced gas, will be available by the fourth quarter of 2021.
