May 2025: Enabling Differentiated Gas Markets through Measurement Informed Supply Chain Carbon…

ABSTRACT: International and domestic demand for low-carbon natural gas supplies is driving the need for a differentiated gas market. European Union regulations will soon require liquefied natural gas (LNG) suppliers to comply with a methane intensity import standard. On the domestic side, technology firms looking for low-carbon electricity to power data centers will benefit from low emissions natural gas power.  Conventional, inventory-based methods to benchmark supply chain carbon intensities are inadequate because inventories have been shown to consistently underestimate methane emissions from the natural gas supply chain. This undermines confidence among buyers and regulators and threatens the credibility of emerging differentiated gas markets. To enable a credible low-emissions marketplace, there is a critical need for measurement-informed approaches that allow for tracing and verification of carbon intensity across the full supply chain. In this talk, I will present recent advances in using remote sensing data to benchmark supply chain carbon intensity across domestic and international gas markets. I will show how incorporation of measurements reveals tail risks associated with high-emission supply chains. We find that supply chain-weighted carbon intensity of global LNG trade is underestimated by up to 31% compared to prior estimates that did not incorporate measurements. I will conclude with a discussion of technical and policy advances necessary to enable a differentiated gas market.  BIO: Dr. Arvind Ravikumar directs the sustainable energy transition lab in the Center for Subsurface Energy and the Environment (CSEE) and the Hildebrand Department of Petroleum & Geosystems Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin. His interdisciplinary research examines technical and economic approaches to sustainably meet global energy demand while addressing its climate impacts. Specifically, Dr. Ravikumar’s work focuses on the role of technology and innovation in reducing the carbon footprint of global oil and gas operations. Dr. Ravikumar is a non-resident fellow with the Payne Institute for Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines.