Methane emissions in the North Sea Symposium

Addressing Methane Emissions: Challenges and Solutions

Methane emissions are receiving increasing attention due to their environmental impact

and the recent 2024 European Methane Regulation. To promote collaboration and knowledge

exchange, TNO, NIOZ and SodM are organizing an international symposium bringing together

global specialists amongst others from Canada, Denmark, Germany, Norway, The Netherlands,

The United Kingdom and the USA. The symposium will focus on methane emissions from the seabed,

both from natural and anthropogenic sources (abandoned wells), on the fate of this methane and on

the quantification of fluxes.

Offshore oil and gas infrastructure, including abandoned wells, may be a significant source of

emissions. The EU Methane Regulation requires Member States to map and monitor inactive wells,

develop mitigations plans and implement measures to reduce methane emissions.

Understanding how to measure it, and how to effectively mitigate it is crucial for all stakeholders.

The Methane Regulation makes this symposium hence both timely and relevant and it is therefore

expected to attract considerable attention from industry, scientists, policy makers and the media.

The symposium aims to bring together and provide an overview of all the relevant knowledge on

the origin and the fate of methane, how to measure methane fluxes, and how leakage from wells

can occur and even may be repaired again, and how to reduce methane emissions.

The offshore impact of the EU Methane Regulation
Origin and migration paths of methane
Causes for methane leakage related to wells (like well integrity issues)
Measuring methane emissions in the North Sea (from all kind of sources, like inactive wells and natural sites)
Ways to mitigate well leakages
Regulations and Policies

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