Energy majors are committing billions of dollars to infrastructure such as Carbon Capture Usage and Storage (CCUS), Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) expansion, and Underground Gas Storage (UGS) systems.
These systems vary in duty and design, but they share a common dependency: high-integrity fluid containment and isolation. Across upstream, midstream and storage environments, valves and their associated actuation and control systems directly determine emissions performance, process efficiency and safety outcomes.
Digital valve performance management provides a structured, data-driven pathway to reduce emissions exposure while improving operational reliability.
The operational foundation of energy transition infrastructure
All process facilities rely on fixed piping systems to transfer pressurised fluids. Control and isolation valves perform two fundamental functions:
- Containment. Ensuring fluid remains within the pipe during transfer.
- Isolation. Preventing unintentional leakage into storage cavities, vents, drains, or flare systems.
Failure in either function leads to emissions, product loss and potential safety risks escalation.
For mixed energy operators managing hydrocarbons, CO2 streams, cryogenic LNG and stored gases, valve integrity becomes increasingly critical as operating envelopes widen and regulatory scrutiny intensifies.
Understanding emissions exposure
Loss of containment through valve stems, body joints or flange interfaces results in fugitive emissions. Individually, these releases are often small, measured in parts per million, but across installations with thousands of valves, their cumulative impact can be significant.
Loss of isolation, through passing valve seats, allows gas to escape to flare or vent systems. These losses are frequently measured in tonnes and represent both carbon release impacts exposure and direct revenue loss.
Operational data across global facilities consistently indicates that 10-20% of process valves may be leakingat any given time, either externally or internally across seats.
For operators reporting methane intensity or Scope 1 emissions, this represents a measurable and often under-managed risk, as well as a missed reduction opportunity.
Industry perspective: operational evidence from the field
Score provides advanced engineering, valve management, and emission reduction services to energy operators around the world – and the experience of their engineers across upstream production, midstream processing and gas transmission and storage facilities demonstrates that emissions exposure is rarely confined to isolated components.
“What we consistently see across asset types is that leakage mechanisms are relatively predictable. When valves are surveyed systematically and data is analysed collectively rather than individually, the scale of recoverable emissions and potential for reductions becomes clear,” says Dave Anderson, a valve condition monitoring expert at Score.
Structured valve population surveys repeatedly show consistent leakage patterns linked to:
- Ageing sealing systems
- Infrequent actuation or partial-stroke regimes
- Thermal cycling
- Packing degradation
- Process fluid impacts (such as sealing surfaces pitting, corrosion and erosion)
- Historical time-based maintenance strategies
This evidence suggests that emissions reduction through valve optimisation is not speculative, it is operationally demonstrable.
From reactive maintenance to structured performance management
Traditional maintenance models rely heavily on calendar-based maintenance intervals or intervention following functional failure. This approach often allows emissions or seat leakage to persist undetected between testing and inspection cycles.
A digitally enabled valve performance framework introduces four key elements:
- Structured testing and detection
Advanced survey technologies enable rapid identification and quantification of both fugitive and internal leakage across full valve populations.
- Risk-based prioritisation
Digital data capture allows leakage results to be ranked by service severity, process criticality and emissions impact.
- In-situ remediation
Where technically feasible, detecting, diagnosing and rectifying leakage without removing valves from service reduces downtime and minimises total emissions volumes.
- Continuous data insights
Trend analysis across valve populations enables transition from time-based to condition and value-informed maintenance strategies.
This shift transforms valve management from an isolated reactive maintenance activity into a structured and proactive integrity discipline.
Financial and environmental alignment
Emissions reduction and financial performance are closely linked.
Seat leakage represents lost saleable product. Fugitive emissions contribute to methane intensity metrics and regulatory exposure. Unplanned failures increase downtime and intervention cost.
Field experience indicates that focused valve emissions programmes can deliver:
- Measurable reduction in flare volumes
- Recovery of previously lost product
- Reduced emergency maintenance events
- Improved audit transparency and defensibility
Anderson says: “In multiple facilities, product loss recovered from passing seats alone has justified the cost of adopting a structured emissions management programme within a single budget cycle.”
For mixed energy operators balancing operational performance with ESG commitments, this alignment provides a compelling technical case for prioritisation.
Supporting emerging energy systems
Emerging energy infrastructure introduces additional technical complexity:
- Dense-phase CO2 service in CCUS
- Cryogenic conditions in LNG systems
- Extended containment durations in UGS
- Increasing reliance on automated actuation and digital control systems
These conditions elevate the potential risks and consequences of performance degradation.
Digital monitoring of valve and actuation performance, position feedback and consequently emissions performance, provides earlier visibility of deterioration before it escalates to failure or measurable losses.
Integrating valve and actuation assembly diagnostics with emissions survey data further strengthens predictive capability.
Converting data into decarbonisation impact
Valve populations are often extensive and geographically distributed. Without structured data aggregation and analytics, emissions remain invisible at portfolio level.
By digitalising survey results, ranking emissions severity and linking findings to intervention capability, operators gain:
- Portfolio-wide visibility
- Prioritised remediation schedules
- Verifiable emissions reduction metrics
- Improved lifecycle planning
The result is a measurable pathway to reducing Scope 1 emissions, using existing infrastructure.
The energy transition depends not only on new infrastructure, but on optimising the performance of assets already in operation.
Valves, actuation systems and control assemblies are central to containment and isolation integrity across hydrocarbons, CO2 and stored gases.
Operational evidence demonstrates that leakage prevalence across valve populations is both measurable and addressable. Digital technologies now enable detection, prioritisation and remediation within significantly reduced timescales.
For mixed energy operators seeking practical, technically robust decarbonisation levers, valve performance management offers immediate, verifiable impact, grounded not in theory, but in operational experience.
Read more about how Score Group can support your business improve productivity and reduce emissions leakage in the whitepaper below.
