MODEC and JGC Corporation have completed a project to measure and quantify emissions of methane and other greenhouse gases from the FPSOs off the coast of Brazil which are chartered and operated by MODEC.

It is the first time that Japanese companies have gained precise insights into the amount of major GHG emissions (methane, nitrous oxide, and hydrofluorocarbons) from active FPSOs, says MODEC.

A quantification of emissions of the three GHGs was carried out from July to September 2023 at two MODEC-chartered FPSOs off the coast of Rio de Janeiro.

As desktop calculations with common coefficients are not accurate enough, there has been a strong international push for emissions to be determined by actual measurements. Therefore, MODEC and JGC selected two methods of on-site measurement: a bottom-up approach using hand-held sensors and infrared cameras, and a top-down approach using drones.

The bottom-up approach measures approximately 15,000 potential methane emission points in the FPSO, and the latter approach captures the methane potential of plant-wide emissions from flying the drones around the FPSOs.

The methodology meets the requirements of levels 4 and 5 in the reporting framework established by the Oil & Gas Methane Partnership 2.0 (OGMP 2.0), an international methane emission mitigation program.