Kathairos has emerged as the leading North American solution for methane elimination from pneumatics, with more than 1,000 systems in operation across North America and over 40 major oil and gas producer partners.
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In addition to providing North American oil and gas producers with a powerful methane solution for emissions from pneumatic controllers, Kathairos’ leading-edge technology can also generate valuable carbon offsets via our cellular and satellite telemetry data.
The Alberta government’s regulated carbon market offers energy producers a lucrative opportunity to benefit from an additional revenue stream while simultaneously achieving environmental regulatory compliance. As the federal carbon pricing initiative increases annually, producers participating in the carbon market are poised to gain an advantageous position within the industry.
While carbon pricing may seem straightforward, the process for developing and serializing offsets—especially in a carbon-intensive industry like oil and natural gas—can be complex for those newly entering the carbon market. That’s why our seasoned in-house carbon accounting team manages the entire offset strategy, from project development activities to verification and serialization for the oil and gas industry.
Kathairos is proud to serve our partners as both a field-level solutions provider and an industry-leading carbon accounting firm; we minimize operator costs through our capacity as a one-stop-shop for both emissions reduction technology and carbon offsets management. In addition to ensuring cost-effectiveness, zero upfront costs are incurred by the producer, as payment for services is only required once the offsets have been successfully serialized.
We chatted with Max Sombrowski, Carbon Offset Lead, to provide some clarity regarding the carbon offset program and how Kathairos’ innovative technology allows us to assist our partners in generating carbon credits, worry-free. Keep reading to learn more about this valuable opportunity!
What do our partners want to know about the carbon offset program?
In December 2023, the Alberta Environment and Protected Areas released a revised protocol which allows carbon offsets to be generated using nitrogen as a replacement fuel gas for pneumatic devices. Kathairos offers a carbon offset management service that enables operators to generate carbon offsets through Alberta's regulated carbon compliance market, to be transferred or transacted on their behalf. On well sites that have a production start date prior to January 1, 2022, customers that use Kathairos’ nitrogen technology can generate carbon offsets.
Using the telemetry units on Kathairos' cryogenic tanks that track and monitor nitrogen 24/7, a vent rate can be assigned to ultimately determine total CO2e mitigated. Vent rates are calculated by the volume of nitrogen used and by applying a direct multiplication factor. For every standard cubic foot of nitrogen used to power the pneumatics, 1.2764 scf (Gas Equivalency Ratio or GER) natural gas would have otherwise been used and vented into the atmosphere:
tCO2e Mitigated = N2(scm) * GER * Methane Gas % Composition * Density of Methane/1000 *Global Warming Potential (CH4)
Vent rates can often change over time due to a range of factors, including seasonality, wellsite type activity, and production start date. These factors impact the number of offsets that can be generated in a reporting year. One tonne of C02e mitigated equates to one emission offsets generated.
What about emissions generated through the transport and production of liquid nitrogen?
These emissions are accounted for in the latest Alberta Protocol and typically amount to less than 2% of all emissions mitigated over the course of the project. Kathairos tracks these emissions closely by monitoring the distance travelled for each refill, the number of nitrogen delivered, and the origin of the nitrogen (BC-produced nitrogen has an extremely low carbon footprint due to the hydro grid).
What is the biggest advantage of this service for our partners?
Kathairos' technology allows companies to meet their annual environmental compliance obligations by reducing well site emissions from pneumatics. In addition, the carbon offsets generated from emission reductions provide customers the opportunity to generate additional cashflows through Alberta's regulated carbon trading market. Alberta’s emission offset market allows Canada to advance its commitments under the global methane pledge by providing an economic incentive for early technology adopters.
What is required from our partners to generate carbon offsets?
Kathairos offers a service that makes generating carbon offsets from pneumatics easy. Kathairos will serialize offsets every 12-18 months. Customers only need to provide:
- Pneumatic Inventories - Make, model and serial numbers of each device onsite
- Gas Composition Samples - CH4 & C02 Compositions
- Monthly Vent Gas Volumes (OVG Limit) gas compliance reported to the Alberta Energy Regulator
- Maintenance records outlining any changes that occurred to the pneumatics onsite
If you could give our partners one piece of advice about the carbon offset program, what would it be?
The earlier you adopt emission-reduction technology, the longer you can generate valuable emission offsets. The federal carbon pollution pricing benchmark is currently $80/tonne, increasing by $15/tonne annually to $130/tonne by 2030. As the price per tonne of carbon increases over time, the ability to generate carbon offsets through pneumatics using nitrogen allows for increased revenue generation potential to help offset customer’s operational costs at well sites.
To learn more about our carbon offsets management service, visit https://www.kathairos.com/docs/kathairos-solutions-offsets-brochure.
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