LongPath Technologies announced the finalization of a $162.4 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office (LPO). This funding will expedite the deployment of LongPath’s nationwide methane emissions monitoring network, which will transform emissions monitoring across major U.S. oil and gas production regions, including California, Colorado, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming.
Based on Nobel Prize-winning optical frequency comb technology, LongPath Technologies is a commercial spinout resulting from ARPA-E’s MONITOR award to Dr. Gregory Rieker’s lab at the University of Colorado, Boulder. And as a commercial enterprise, LongPath received foundational support from ARPA-E’s ScaleUP awards and is now supported by the DOE LPO funding.
These initiatives align with LongPath’s mission to Flatten the Emissions Curve, primarily by collaborating with oil and gas operators to reduce methane intensity across major basins. And with DOE’s financial backing, LongPath plans to install over 1,000 advanced laser-based methane sensing nodes, covering up to 24,000 square miles and monitoring tens of thousands of facilities.
This network is expected to prevent methane emissions equivalent to at least six million metric tons of CO2e annually—the equivalent of taking 1.3 million gasoline-powered vehicles off the road—by enabling subscribers to identify and respond to methane leaks quickly. And at its peak, the project will create 35 construction jobs and 266 operational jobs.
KEY QUOTE:
“DOE’s support for LongPath’s wide-area methane detection network is significant. Our laser-equipped system provides U.S. oil and gas producers with an affordable, high-impact tool to ensure compliance, optimize LDAR (Leak Detection and Repair ) programs, and eliminate costly methane leaks. This loan speeds up our capacity to offer operators the technology needed to achieve significant methane reductions, supporting both operational efficiency and environmental sustainability.”
– Ian Dickinson, CEO of LongPath Technologies
