Williams delivers first full value chain-certified low-carbon natural gas

Photo: Williams

Williams, a Tulsa, Okla.-based clean energy solutions provider, announced the execution of agreements with Coterra Energy and Dominion Energy Virginia that establish what it said is the first next-generation natural gas certification process across all segments of the value chain, from production through gathering and transmission, with deliveries through 2023.

Williams is leveraging block-chain secured technology via Context Labs’ Decarbonization as a Service (DaaS) platform to track and measure end-to-end emissions. The DaaS platform will be used to integrate data from multiple sources across Coterra’s and Williams’ operations, including ground-based optical gas imaging cameras, flyovers, satellite monitoring and internal operational systems. This data is then aggregated and reconciled using a blockchain-secured carbon accounting ledger to provide an end-to-end path-specific methane intensity certification from production through gathering and transmission. The environmental attributes associated with the delivery of next gen natural gas will be registered, tracked and retired through Context Lab’s CLEAR Path platform.

KPMG LLP – the U.S. firm of the KPMG global organization of independent professional services firms providing audit, tax and advisory services – will perform third-party verification of the methane intensity certification and low-emission attributes of the next-gen natural gas.

According to Williams, the program represents the first full value chain methane emissions certification program that will meet or exceed the Quantification, Measurement, Reporting and Verification (QMRV) measurement standards prescribed by the Oil & Gas Methane Partnership, a multi-stakeholder partnership developed by the United Nations, the Environmental Defense Fund and the Climate and Clean Air Coalition. It will also meet the upcoming Veritas protocol by research firm GTI Energy which brings together scientists, academics, environmental organizations, certification organizations and industry participants to demonstrate emissions reductions in a consistent, credible and transparent way.

“Williams is proud to launch the industry’s first comprehensive next gen natural gas platform to bring greater trust, transparency and transactability to the certified gas market,” said Chad Zamarin, senior vice president of Corporate Strategic Development for Williams. “As we look to a low-carbon energy future, Williams is committed to leading our industry with credible solutions to benefit our customers and their sustainability goals.”

Blake Sirgo, senior vice president of operations for Coterra Energy, added: “Coterra is pleased to partner with Williams in deploying this exciting new technology which has the potential to change how we measure and report emissions data. We remain focused on being an environmental leader and we are optimistic that this reference implementation will further aid Coterra in our ongoing efforts to reduce our emissions by developing, adopting and implementing innovative technologies and practices.”

The delivery of next gen natural gas highlights the low-carbon benefits of Coterra’s production in northeast Pennsylvania and Williams’ gathering and transmission operations to provide a differentiated low-emission gas product for Dominion Energy Virginia, Williams pointed out. Over the 1-year duration of the project, this pathway is estimated to avoid 120,000 metric tons of CO2e emissions when compared to the national average methane emissions for the production, gathering and transmission segments.

“Our partnership with Williams and Coterra is another important step in reducing emissions across the entire natural gas value chain,” said Cedric Green, senior vice president of Power Generation for Dominion Energy Virginia. “Certified, low-emissions natural gas is a vital part of achieving our goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. We look forward to continuing this and other innovative partnerships to deliver affordable, reliable and clean energy to the customers we serve.”