As part of its commitment to identify, quantify and reduce methane emissions associated to its operations, TotalEnergies has launched a worldwide drone-based emissions detection and quantification campaign across all its upstream Oil & Gas operated sites.

The campaign is being implemented by using Airborne Ultralight Spectrometer For Environmental Applications (AUSEA) technology developed by TotalEnergies, the French National Research Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and University of Reims Champagne Ardenne.

It started in early March at African offshore sites, has now been launched in South America and will reach Europe this summer. The campaign will help reduce 50% in methane emissions at Company operated sites by 2025 and 80% by 2030 (targets in relation to 2020).

“TotalEnergies is committed to moving towards Zero Methane. Considered to be currently the most accurate technology in the world to detect and measure methane emissions, AUSEA will help us to refine our emissions calculations, and to take stronger measures to reduce our emissions even further in order to achieve the targets we have set,” said Namita Shah, President, OneTech of TotalEnergies.

It should be noted that AUSEA is a greenhouse gas quantification technology which TotalEnergies has been working on along its partners since 2017. It consists of a miniature dual sensor mounted on a drone, capable of detecting methane and carbon dioxide emissions, while at the same time identifying their source.

The AUSEA technology also can be used to move from a manual to an autonomous mode in order to increase the frequency of methane emission measurements. Its deployment will also be extended to the Company’s other activities, particularly at its refineries.