Serious leak of natural gas on a Pennsylvanian facility is liquidated

According to Equitrans Midstream Corp., the leak of natural gas that occurred at the Rager Mountain Storage facility in Jackson was liquidated on Monday. According to preliminary and conservative estimates, 100 MMcf/d had been bursting. BloombergNEF data says that total emissions were approximately 15,800 to 20,300 metric tons of methane.

A gas leak in Pennsylvania lasted 11 days. The owner says more than a billion cubic feet of fuel were released into the atmosphere. 

The largest gas leak in the US occurred in 2015 in Aliso Canyon, Los Angeles, which was owned by a division of Sempra Energy. Then 97,100 tons of gas were emitted into the atmosphere.

The leak of gas in Pennsylvania shows the risk related to its output. Many fossil fuel companies are positioning natural gas as an alternative to coal. Although gas burns cleaner than coal, this advantage is meaningless if a large amount of gas is released into the atmosphere. There, the heating capacity of gas is 84 times higher than that of coal.

Methane is the main component of natural gas. Since the industrial revolution, it has been responsible for 30% of global temperature rise. Scientists believe that stopping emissions and leaks from gas production is one of the easiest ways to fight global warming.