COVID‐19 Impact on the Oil and Gas Industry NO2 Emissions: A Case Study of the Permian Basin

Abstract

AbstractCOVID‐19 caused a historic collapse in fossil fuel demand, a general decline in economic activity, and hydrocarbon price volatility. This resulted in an unprecedented scenario to evaluate the contribution of the O&G (Oil and Gas) industry NO2 (nitrogen dioxide) emissions in the Permian basin (United States), currently the second largest hydrocarbon‐bearing area on Earth. TROPOMI (Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument), on board the Sentinel‐5P satellite, has captured the impact of the oil and gas industry emissions during the COVID‐19 lockdown. A generalized drop (∼30%) of NO2 emissions derived using the divergence method in comparison with 2019 was observed following the decline in production and drilling (13% and 68% respectively) during the lockdown. NO2 tropospheric columns were less impacted with a smaller decrease (∼4%) across the basins. This study demonstrates that the impact of the COVID‐19 lockdown on NO2 emissions was not only present in urban areas but also in vast O&G production regions, which shows the potential of TROPOMI to assess future pollution mitigation strategies for this industry.