On December 10, 2021, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) released draft final rules to cut methane emissions from existing oil and gas wells. Pennsylvania is the second-largest gas-producing state after Texas.[1] The DEP first released the draft rules for new wells in 2019 and has collected comments over the past two years. The newly released draft applies to existing oil and gas wells and associated facilities. It includes an exception for oil and gas wells that produce less than 15 barrels of crude a day. The draft requires operators to conduct leak searches four times a year and upgrade existing equipment to reduce pollution from controllers, pumps, compressors, and tanks. According to the DEP, the final rules are expected to reduce emissions of volatile organic compounds by nearly 12,000 tons per year and methane emissions by about 214,000 tons per year, compared to about 75,000 tons in the previous draft. The draft was released in advance of the DEP’s Air Quality Technical Advisory Committee meeting. It still has to be reviewed by several state boards and could be in place by mid-2022.

[1]https://files.dep.state.pa.us/Air/AirQuality/AQPortalFiles/Advisory%20Committees/Air%20Quality%20Technical%20Advisory%20Committee/2021/12-9-21/post_OG_CTG_FRN_ANNEX_A__DRAFT_AQTAC.pdf