GHGSat, based in Montreal, revealed on November 7th its intentions to launch two more satellites, adding to its existing constellation dedicated to tracking greenhouse gases. This expansion, timed before the 30th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Brazil, will grow the methane-monitoring constellation from 12 to 14 satellites.
“With a constellation of this size, we’re able to monitor industrial sites at an unmatched daily cadence and alert operators about emissions at their sites within hours,” Stephane Germain said during a Nov. 5 press briefing. “We work in direct collaboration with industry leaders, including Saudi Aramco, Petrobras, Total and Chevron, to name just a few, to help them drive methane reductions. Armed with GHGSat data, operators have been able to mitigate more than 20 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent to date, equivalent to taking 4.6 million cars off the road for a year.”
Energy companies collaborate with GHGSat to address costly methane leaks. “When we translate the methane emissions in 2024 into potential revenue, we find that these emissions are worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the oil and gas industry, revenues that the industry can realize by keeping methane in the pipe,” Germain said.
“If that methane had been turned into a natural gas product, instead of emissions, it could have generated more than $142 million in additional revenue for oil and gas producers in the U.S. and Canada, or more than 35 million euros for oil and gas producers in Europe.”
According to Germain, the existing 12 methane-monitoring satellites already provide "capable of monitoring sites at a daily frequency." The addition of two more satellites will "be able to meet certain demand for capacity in regions like the Permian Basin in the United States.”
Besides methane, GHGSat launched its first satellite in 2023 to detect carbon-dioxide emissions. “We’ve already learned some lessons from that,” Germain said. “We already know what we need to do to improve for our next ones and offer even better services.” The company intends to expand carbon-dioxide monitoring based on demand.
“You’re probably aware that there are national agencies that have CO2-monitoring satellites that look at a different scale than we do,” Germain said. He mentioned the European Space Agency’s Copernicus Anthropogenic Carbon Dioxide Monitoring satellite, which is scheduled to launch in 2027. “I want to make sure that we’ve got the right people signed up and enough people signed up to justify continuing to launch more CO2 satellites,” Germain said.