Great Opportunities for Perspectum Inspection Services?If/When the Perspectum Drone Inspection Services deal closes, I think DM's Europe footprint may prove valuable to tap into the methane monitoring market, as the EU is on the brink of implementing new methane management legislation.
This news came out in Reuters today (https://reut.rs/35OaUkO), the gist of which is:
EXCLUSIVE: Gas infrastructure across Europe leaking planet-warming methane - Clean Air Task Force (CATF) found methane seeping into the atmosphere at 123 oil and gas sites in Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland and Romania this year (Note: CATF doesn't appear to be able to quantify methane leak volumes - something Perspectum would seek to do, with AI)
- The EU is proposing laws this year that will force oil and gas companies to monitor and report methane emissions, as well as improve the detection and repair of leaks. (Note: Great potyential market for DM)
- 90% of the sites he visited in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Poland and Romania were emitting methane while his hit rate in Germany and Austria was lower.
- Brussels put energy companies on notice in October that it would target them with new rules on gas leaks and was also considering restrictions on venting or flaring of methane.
- because the EU has few methane "super emitters", the legislation would focus on tackling the smaller but far more frequent emissions that occur throughout energy sector infrastructure.
- new rules will shake things up for every oil and gas firm in Europe, not least because the EU is considering forcing companies to find and fix even the smallest leaks.
- Brussels wants to get rules in place early enough to contribute to its goal of cutting net emissions of all greenhouse gases by 55% by 2030
- The EU is not alone. U.S. plans to propose new rules this year to reduce methane emissions
- The New York Times used an infrared camera to identify large methane leaks at U.S. oil and gas sites in 2019 while satellite footage made available to Reuters revealed massive methane leaks from Russian gas pipelines (Note: Imagine the potential of a JV with MDA on methane monitoring, where MDA could pick up major leaks before DM/Perspectum pinpoints these more precisely through use of drones).
- The U.N. said in April that without deep cuts in methane emissions this decade, the Paris Agreement's goal of limiting warming to 1.5 Celsius would slip out of reach.
- A growing web of satellites searching for methane means major leaks of thousands of tonnes a year are easier to identify but many smaller leaks go unnoticed