With the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) updated methane rules, the oil and gas industry is navigating one of its most significant regulatory shifts in decades. The rules cover both new and existing sources and require advanced monitoring and emissions reporting, making updated asset and data management practices a priority.

Compliance with these rules starts with knowing the organization’s assets—well pads, pipelines, compressor stations, and more. Operators need to assess the specifics of each facility, including equipment type, age, and maintenance history, because even small changes, such as an upgrade to a single piece of equipment, can trigger new compliance requirements across a facility. Without a real-time inventory and a way to manage these assets, operators risk missing these details and falling out of compliance.

Data management is equally important. Asset management systems are often driven by production, accounting, and maintenance systems, with data pulled from an inventory process or from systems like SAP and Maximo. Organizations often struggle to maintain accurate data, as spreadsheets and other data collected manually quickly become out of date. Any issues in this area can trickle down into emissions management as well.

With the stringent new rules, full compliance will create a significant financial, resource, and capital burden for the industry. Strong asset and data management will be critical to oil and gas leaders’ ability to simplify compliance and drive operational improvements.

Addressing the Key Challenges in Asset and Data Management

Operators face three primary challenges in managing assets and data to meet methane regulations: limited resources, managing change, and leveraging methane emissions as an asset.

• Limited resources: Operators often lack the staff, tools, and systems to effectively manage emissions data and compliance processes. Without scalable solutions, keeping up with evolving regulations becomes an unmanageable burden.Operators can mitigate this challenge by automating data acquisition and validation. Operators can reduce the day-to-day burden on employees while expediting the process and improving the quality of the data collected. It can be as simple as an automated message that notifies employees of anomalies due to missing data points or inaccurate readings from faulty equipment.Leaders should also ensure that their asset and data management systems are appropriately complex for their operations. For smaller operators, that means starting small with basic emissions tracking software that can grow with their needs. This can help ease the initial compliance burden without overextending resources or getting locked into a system that does not meet the organization’s needs. For larger operators, good data management and automation is a must due to the volume of data and the complexity of recordkeeping needs.The risk of a small issue turning into a larger one is significant, but this risk can be mitigated with an overall strategy that includes ongoing investment into asset and data management systems.

  Operators of all sizes should also ensure that they are documenting how data and management systems are set up. As employees leave the organization or systems are merged, it will help ensure that teams understand what data feeds into which systems, and why.

• Insufficient change management processes: Any organization with an asset management system should also have a formalized Management of Change (MOC) system. It doesn’t necessarily have to be automated, but it must include formal processes by change type, from switching out a flange to putting in a new compressor station and everything in between.With larger changes, such as adding equipment or building a new facility, it’s often quite obvious that the extent of the change is likely to trigger compliance requirements. But without a strong MOC system, it can be easy to overlook smaller changes, like a maintenance business process change that has unanticipated effects downstream. Operators should continue to add MOC processes and refine them as operations change and new change types emerge. MOC processes can also help operators ensure that they are documenting any changes to their asset management systems.

• An increasing focus on managing methane emissions as an asset: While methane emissions are often seen as a liability, they can also be a strategic asset. Properly managed emissions data can drive operational efficiency, help identify leaks, and guide investments in mitigation efforts.Oil and gas leaders have been focused on emissions management for decades now due to longstanding regulations focused on pollutants other than methane, and operators are now trying to apply what they’ve learned to methane. But the scope is so much larger with methane—in oil and gas, just about every asset has potential to leak methane, whether intentionally or otherwise.When operators have a mechanism in place for maintaining an asset inventory, the next question becomes, what do they need to know about that inventory to enable methane accounting? Much like keeping tabs on transactions from a financial perspective, managing methane emissions as an asset requires understanding where (and at what magnitude) emissions are occurring, then digitizing that accounting into a data management system that’s in lockstep with asset inventory and operational data. Operators can then automate the engineering calculations required to translate that data into emissions data that can be used to identify inefficiencies, prioritize upgrades, and guide investments. Larger operators are increasingly using digital tools and automation to manage this data, driving both compliance and operational benefits, and smaller ones can take incremental steps to do the same.

Beyond Compliance: Unlocking Value

Accurate data management is key to oil and gas operators’ ability to comply with methane regulations. Good emissions data—data that’s properly tracked and analyzed—shows where problems are and helps shape mitigation plans.

But proactive asset and data management practices do more than ensure compliance—they also drive environmental and operational gains. By tracking emissions systematically, operators can more easily prioritize reduction initiatives, whether they are looking to upgrade equipment or invest in leak detection programs. These efforts support sustainability goals and build stakeholder confidence.

Learn more about how Trinity is helping operators of all sizes comply with stringent new rules, minimize emission fees, and maximize return on investment in our new report, “Navigating the Methane Landscape.” If you have immediate needs or want to discuss how the new rules could affect your operation, please “contact us” today to schedule a consultation.