Mykita Slobodian, Ph.D. in Technical Sciences, expert at Razom We Stand
Every cubic meter of natural gas that escapes from Ukraine’s gas infrastructure represents both environmental damage and lost funds, as well as a wasted resource that the country lacks amid the war. Leak detection and repair (LDAR) programs, which allow to identify and eliminate methane leaks, make it possible to change this situation: to shift from viewing technical losses as an inevitable part of the industry’s operations to systematically managing and reducing them. For Ukraine, the implementation of LDAR should not only be a means of complying with European requirements but also a practical tool for modernizing the gas infrastructure, improving the operational efficiency of enterprises, and strengthening energy security.
As part of its preparations for EU accession, Ukraine must align its legislation and the operating practices of its energy companies with the requirements of the EU Methane Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2024/1787), implementation of which is listed among key progress benchmarks. This Regulation places particular emphasis on LDAR programs, as regular equipment inspections, prompt repairs, and proper recording of results enable a significant portion of uncontrolled methane emissions to be rapidly reduced while simultaneously conserving marketable gas.
For Ukraine, the implementation of the Regulation is an essential element of integration into the future EU energy market architecture, which increasingly links energy trade to the transparency of emissions data; failure to comply with this architecture may not only pose a barrier to market access, financing, and partnerships but also result in sanctions.
For Ukraine’s major energy sector operators (gas transmission, gas production, gas distribution infrastructure, etc.) the Regulation should not be viewed solely as an economic and regulatory burden; on the contrary, its implementation creates the conditions for a systematic reduction in technological losses, the conservation of natural gas resources, increased operational efficiency, improved ESG metrics for international financing, and, overall, the formation of a new economic model of profitability through resource conservation. Every cubic meter of natural gas that does not enter the atmosphere due to a leak or venting should be viewed not only through the environmental lens of reducing methane emissions as a greenhouse gas, but also as a direct source of additional revenue and a conserved resource that has a specific market value.
Given the realities of wartime and the high value of the country’s own energy resources, the implementation of the Regulation in Ukraine is not only an environmental obligation and contribution to climate change mitigation (which are also extremely important), but also part of a national economic security strategy aimed at enhancing the energy resilience of the state and energy market operators.
There is a need to fundamentally change the paradigm governing the energy sector in Ukraine, which for decades has traditionally held that methane losses in gas transmission, production, and distribution systems are technically unavoidable and constitute an integral part of normal technological processes. The modern approach laid out in the Regulation fundamentally changes this logic: methane emissions are viewed not as a side effect, but as an indicator of inefficient resource management, technological shortcomings, and lost economic benefits. Thus, the formula “Methane Emission Reduction = Additional Financial Resource” must become an axiom for the energy sector.
Given that the oil and gas sector, according to the National Inventory of Anthropogenic Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Ukraine, accounts for a significant share, approximately 60–70%, of national methane emissions into the atmosphere, the implementation of the Regulation becomes a critically important tool for restructuring Ukraine’s economy on the principles of energy efficiency and environmental protection. It should be noted that the potential for reducing methane emissions in Ukraine is significantly higher than in many European countries, which is why the impact of implementing the Regulation will be substantial.
Implementing comprehensive LDAR programs to detect and eliminate methane leaks – specifically, replacing leaky devices, modernizing equipment, monitoring emissions, and limiting flaring – is key to improving operators’ production efficiency and economic performance. LDAR is conducted not only to ensure compliance with the Regulation’s requirements but also to improve operational efficiency and the safety of the production process.
The costs incurred to implement regular LDAR programs should be viewed as investments with a direct financial return. It is the large operators of gas transmission systems, underground gas storage facilities, gas production, and distribution that are the biggest beneficiaries of the implementation of the Regulation as a whole and LDAR programs in particular, as they stand to gain the most due to economies of scale. Minor leaks from thousands of sources add up to colossal cumulative losses; therefore, even a slight reduction in leaks can result in savings of hundreds of millions of hryvnias annually.
The focus should be on well-designed and professionally implemented LDAR programs, the results of which must be mandatorily reflected in the investment programs of operators, and the costs of their implementation must be included in the tariff base by the regulator. After all, the widespread implementation of LDAR among energy sector operators will require the purchase of expensive specialized equipment (OGI cameras, gas analyzers, samplers, etc.).
High-quality implementation of LDAR programs can deliver “quick wins” and significantly reduce methane emissions through the following steps: implementing organizational measures to reduce emissions that do not require significant financial investment; stopping the routine venting and flaring; eliminating sources of extremely high emissions; replacing inefficient and obsolete equipment; and ensuring regular inspections based on a detailed digital database of identified and potential emission sources. In the future, LDAR must become an integral part of the operational procedures of energy sector operators and their daily, systematic production activities.
The implementation of the Regulation and compliance with LDAR will give rise to what is essentially a new market for services. There will be significant demand for management specialists in the development and implementation of LDAR, as well as technical specialists in the use of specialized equipment for detecting and eliminating gas leaks, independent verifiers, and expert auditors for analyzing and verifying the results of LDAR program implementation. To ensure maximum effectiveness, the process of implementing the Regulation must be accompanied by awareness-raising and training for business entities (operators) that will directly develop and implement LDAR programs.
The main economic benefit of implementing LDAR for these operators is that every cubic meter of methane saved remains in their system as marketable gas that can be sold on the market, used for internal production processes, and so on.
Therefore, the process of educating stakeholders in Ukraine and promoting the benefits of LDAR must begin immediately; early implementation will provide operators with a significant competitive advantage and facilitate a structural shift from a reactive “accident response” management model to a proactive “loss management” model. In essence, methane emissions management could become the equivalent of energy efficiency in the oil and gas industry.
Thus, Ukraine has a unique opportunity to use the implementation of the Regulation’s provisions regarding LDAR not only for formal alignment with the EU and compliance with integration requirements, but also as a mechanism for structural modernization of the entire industry, since the Regulation as a whole – and LDAR programs in particular – are not just about reducing emissions; they are about turning losses into profits, technological backwardness into modernization, and energy challenges into a strategic advantage. That is precisely why, for large operators, the implementation of LDAR should be viewed not as a wasteful environmental expense, but as a new source of economic efficiency.
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This material has been produced with the financial assistance of the Ukraine2EU Programme. The views and opinions expressed are the sole responsibility of Razom We Stand and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Ukraine2EU Programme or those of the European Union.
