We’re updating SOPs for the new methane standards (OOOOb/OOOOc) and weighing quarterly OGI at multi‑well pads, zero‑bleed pneumatics, and tank vapor recovery to stay ahead of detection and flaring limits. If you’ve mapped a 2025 schedule or vendor mix that balances regulatory compliance with real emissions reductions, I’d love to compare notes — especially on sites that see high-flowback after fracs.
We penciled 2025 with quarterly OGI on stable multi‑well pads and low‑cost fixed methane nodes at the high‑throughput sites to catch spikes between rounds — belt‑and‑suspenders, but it worked. Swapping to zero‑bleed early and phasing VRU sizing per pad kept backpressure and nuisance flares down; airborne scans were fun but gave windy‑day false alarms, so we only use them pre‑turnaround. EPA overview if you need it: Controlling Air Pollution from Oil and Natural Gas Operations | US EPA.
We ran quarterly OGI on the calm pads and put two fixed nodes on the “hot” tank batteries; they caught a loose thief-hatch in hours and spared a flare. Small caveat on zero‑bleed: budget a mini air dryer for winter or the instrument air will freeze; @marvin_v1970’s belt‑and‑suspenders plays well, and a VRU with auto‑bypass saved us twice — who’s your VRU vendor?
On our busiest multi‑well pads we mapped 2025 as monthly AVO plus IR drone passes after any workover, then set the tank VRU to cut in 2–3 oz below the flare trigger and pipe alerts into SCADA — alert fatigue is real, . If you’re eyeing instrument‑air swaps for pneumatics, budget lead time for compressor sizing in cold snaps, and +1 to @jward_75 on fixed nodes but tier the alarms so ops doesn’t tune them out.