Zefiro Methane has landed its first-ever methane monitoring contract, marking a significant expansion into environmental services.

The contract, awarded by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP), includes pre-plugging and post-plugging methane quantification and identifying oil/gas wells for potential plugging.

The scope of work provided by the WVDEP will generate approximately $800,000 in revenue for Zefiro, as it operates as a subcontractor to North Wind Site Services.

This project falls under the Methane Emissions Reduction Programme (MERP), part of the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which allocates $1.36bn in financial and technical assistance to mitigate methane and other greenhouse gas emissions in the oil and gas industry.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the US Department of Energy (DOE) announced $850m in funding last December, aimed at reducing and quantifying methane emissions from the oil and gas sector.

Zefiro interim CEO Catherine Flax said: “Methane monitoring is something that we were already doing at Zefiro as part of our due diligence in originating carbon offsets, in order to quantify the amount of emissions that are being abated as the result of a given well remediation project.

“However, performing methane monitoring as a stand-alone revenue-generating service unlocks an opportunity for us to drive value from tasks that we would otherwise ordinarily be performing using existing equipment and crew members.”

Additionally, Plants & Goodwin (P&G), a subsidiary of Zefiro Methane, has also recently been awarded the Morrow 8 orphan well-plugging initiative in Morrow County, Ohio.

This project, funded by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, involves plugging four orphan wells and capping two additional wells in the townships of Gilead and Perry.

P&G secured this project with a competitive bid of $522,233, showcasing the company's growing presence in environmental remediation efforts.