This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) aligns with DOE’s Office of Resource Sustainability’s Methane Emissions Mitigation and Quantification Program to minimize emissions of methane during production, processing, and transportation across the oil and natural gas industry, with the goal of eliminating methane emissions from carbon-based fuel supply chains by 2030. Effective methane emissions mitigation strategies are dependent upon accurate quantification of both intentional and fugitive emissions from all elements across the natural gas infrastructure, including low producing oil and gas wells. Therefore, there is a continual need to maintain a state-of-the-industry understanding methane emissions mitigation opportunities and operation performance, through collection of empirical data, across oil and natural gas production and delivery regions of the United States. This is to maximize the value of these efforts to the public with the goals of reducing GHG emissions and improving environmental health and engagement of the affected public, (largely in disadvantaged or frontline communities).
The FOA objective is to make funds available to a variety of entities for the purpose of mitigating methane emissions from marginal conventional wells (MCWs) and other oil and natural gas assets; accelerating the commercialization, scale-up and application of innovative methane emissions reduction technologies; and advancing the characterization and reduction of methane emissions through multi-scale, measurement-informed data collection and analysis.
Deadline: Aug. 26, 2024
• Area of Interest 1 – Methane Emissions Reduction from Existing Wells and Infrastructure (with three (3) Sub AOIs):
o Reducing Methane Emissions from Marginal Conventional Wells;
o Reducing Methane Emissions from Small Operators’ Wells and Other Oil and Natural Gas Assets;
o Reducing Methane Emissions from Marginal Conventional Wells and Oil and Gas Assets on Tribal Lands
• Area of Interest 2 – Accelerating Deployment of Methane Emissions Reduction Solutions (with three (3) Sub AOIs):
o Field Deployment of Engine and Compressor Methane Reduction Technologies;
o Field Deployment of Gas Flaring Reduction Technologies;
o Field Deployment of Emissions Reduction Technologies at Oil and Gas Production Facilities
Domestic entities are eligible to apply as prime recipients or subrecipients. The following types of domestic entities are eligible to participate as a prime recipient or subrecipient of this FOA: 1. Institutions of higher education; 2. For-profit entities; 3. Nonprofit entities; 4. State and local governmental entities; and 5. Indian Tribes, as defined in section 4 of the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act, 25 U.S.C. § 530457
An entity may submit more than one Full Application to this FOA, provided that each application describes a unique, scientifically distinct project.