According to MethaneSAT, novel observations revealed methane emissions from oil and gas operations in North America and Central Asia are higher than currently reported.
The new images from MethaneSAT, a satellite that finds and measures methane emissions, include the Appalachian, Permian and Uinta basins in the US, the Amu Darya and South Caspian basins in Turkmenistan and the Maturin basin in Venezuela.
According to MethaneSAT, these early observations suggest that emissions in North America and Central Asian production basins are significantly higher than currently reported in existing inventories built on engineering estimates.
Data show that based on gross gas production, the loss rate (or emissions intensity) of 1.8% to 2.9% observed in the Permian basin in these preliminary measurements is at least nine times higher than the 2030 target loss rate of 0.2% promised under the industry’s public commitments.
Furthermore, in Utah’s Uinta basin with its aging, leak-prone infrastructure and low producing mix of oil and gas wells, MethaneSAT observed loss rates around 9%, ten times higher than in the more productive, gas-dominant Appalachian basin.
According to the MethaneSAT data, total oil and gas methane emissions observed in these images range from roughly 50 tonnes/hour in the Uinta to 280 tonnes/hour in the Permian, and up to 420 tonnes/hour in the South Caspian basin.
Dr. Steven Hambur, Mission Lead, MethaneSAT, commented that the satellite is designed to give the whole picture of emissions for the first time across all types of production basins, both big sources and thousands of smaller ones. It functions like a wide-angle lens, covering large areas in a single image, with great clarity.
These insights will help stakeholders gain a much clearer understanding of the emission challenges and track progress over time.
…said Dr. Steven Hamburg.
In conclusion, emissions directly quantified by MethaneSAT are significantly greater than reported based on bottom-up estimates.
Subtracting non-oil and gas sources, methane emissions observed in the Permian are still three- to five times greater than estimates by EPA in their 2020 gridded inventory.
This is in line with the data from an aircraft version of MethaneSAT collected in 2023. Those observed in the South Caspian are over 10 times higher than reported in the independent global 2022 EDGAR emissions database.
