Scientists have accurately identified the locations of significant “super-emission” methane leaks from oil and gas production, contributing up to 12% of annual methane emissions into the atmosphere. Identifying and repairing these sites could save billions of dollars for many countries.
Analysis of satellite images from 2019 and 2020 revealed that the majority of the 1,800 largest methane sources in the study originated from six major oil and gas-producing countries: Turkmenistan leads, followed by Russia, the United States, Iran, Kazakhstan, and Algeria.
The research team, led by climate scientist Thomas Lauvaux from Paris-Saclay University, along with colleagues, suggests that sealing these leaks would not only benefit the planet but could also save these countries billions of U.S. dollars.
The methane outbursts in which oil and gas producers intentionally release methane are a significant source of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
Super-emission devices are sources that emit at least 25 tons of methane per hour into the atmosphere. These sporadic large outbursts account for only a small fraction of the methane released from oil and gas production into Earth’s atmosphere annually.
Euan Nisbet, a geochemist at Royal Holloway, University of London in Egham, who was not involved in the study, stated that cleaning up such leaks would be an important first step in reducing overall emissions. “If you see someone severely injured in a road accident, you bandage the wounds that are bleeding the most.”
Methane has a warming potential about 80 times greater than carbon dioxide, although it tends to have a much shorter atmospheric lifetime—ranging from 10 to 20 years or longer, compared to hundreds of years for carbon dioxide. Greenhouse gases can enter the atmosphere from both natural and anthropogenic sources.
In oil and gas production, large methane outbursts can result from accidents, leaking pipelines, or other facilities, Lauvaux noted. However, these leaks are often the result of routine maintenance activities, the research team found. For example, instead of shutting down for several days to purge gas from the pipeline, operators may open valves at both ends of the line, quickly releasing and burning off gas. This practice is prominently visible in satellite images as “two giant plumes” along a pipeline, Lauvaux explained.
Preventing such activities and repairing leaking facilities is relatively straightforward, which is why such changes could yield low-hanging fruit when it comes to addressing greenhouse gas emissions. However, identifying the specific sources of these massive methane emissions is a challenge. Aerial studies can help pinpoint some large sources, such as landfills, dairy farms, and oil and gas producers, but such flights are limited by both area and time.
Satellites, such as the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument from the European Space Agency, or TROPOMI, provide a much broader view in both space and time. Scientists have previously used TROPOMI to estimate the overall leakage from oil and gas production in the vast Permian Basin in the southwestern United States, discovering that this area emits methane into the atmosphere at twice the previously thought rate (SN: 4/22/20).
Hotspots
Satellite images have helped scientists identify super-emission oil and gas methane sources (orange circles), where the largest emissions reach up to 500 tons of gas per hour (larger orange circles). The blue lines represent gas pipelines. Some hotspots trace the paths of these pipelines, such as in Russia.
Locations of super-emission methane identified in 2019–2020.
In the new study, the research team did not include sources in the Permian Basin among the super-emission sources; the large emissions from that area result from many closely grouped but smaller emission sources. Because TROPOMI cannot see through clouds, other regions globally, such as Canada and the equatorial tropics, were also not included.
However, that does not mean those areas are inactive, Lauvaux said. “It’s just that data is not available.” Based on this panoramic view from TROPOMI, Lauvaux and other scientists are currently working to fill these data gaps by using other satellites with better resolution and the ability to penetrate clouds.
The researchers noted that preventing all these large leaks, which account for about 8 to 12% of total annual methane emissions from oil and gas production, could save billions of dollars for these countries. Reducing those emissions would benefit the planet similarly to cutting all emissions from Australia since 2005, or removing 20 million vehicles from the roads in one year.
Daniel Jacob, an atmospheric chemist at Harvard University who was not involved in the study, stated that such a global map could also be beneficial for countries in achieving their targets under the Global Methane Commitment announced in November at the annual United Nations climate summit.
Signatories to the commitment have agreed to reduce global methane emissions by at least 30% from 2020 levels by 2030. These new findings, Jacob said, could help achieve that goal as it “encourages action rather than despair.”
