GHGSat, a company providing global emissions monitoring services, announced a CAD 3.3 million funding agreement from Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) to provide emissions measurements of oil and gas facilities in the Montney region of British Columbia. The project’s primary objective is to demonstrate that a tiered monitoring system using GHGSat’s satellites and aircraft instruments can detect more leaks quicker and at a lower cost than the regulatory standard, based on optical gas imaging cameras.
The project, which has a total value of CAD 9.8 million, will begin field operations in early 2020. Measurements will be conducted using GHGSat’s newest satellite platform (GHGSat-C1, or “Iris”) in combination with an aircraft-mounted sensor that GHGSat has in development.
“GHGSat understands the need for globally standardized technology to quantify GHG [greenhouse gas] emissions from industrialized facilities,” said Zoe Kolbuc, SDTC’s vice president for partnerships. “Their innovative satellites can reduce monitoring costs in the oil sands by over 50%. More-frequent and -accurate reporting better informs the industry on where and how to reduce GHG emissions. SDTC is proud to invest in GHGSat as it develops a solution to help reduce GHG emissions from industrialized sites.”
Stéphane Germain, GHGSat’s chief executive officer, said, “These funds will allow GHGSat to demonstrate to regulators that our technology can offer accurate and more-frequent measurements, enabling industrial operators to identify and repair leaks faster, all for lower cost than conventional methods. We’re very excited to be partnering with SDTC again for this next stage of our growth.”
GHGSat is the first and only private company to own and operate high-resolution satellites designed to measure greenhouse gas emissions from industrial facilities around the world.