Texas Methane Emissions Hit All-Time High – The Energy Mix
Methane emissions from the massive Permian Basin shale fields in Texas and New Mexico are more than twice the U.S. government estimate, according to a paper published last week in the journal Science Advances, and experts say global emissions are on track to increase during the COVID-19 crisis as low oil prices push producers to save money on scheduled maintenance of pipelines and other infrastructure.
The satellite and modelling data, assembled between May 2018 and March 2019, represent “the largest methane flux ever reported from a U.S. oil/gas-producing region,” amounting to 3.7% of all the gas extracted from the Permian, the paper states. That’s 15 to 18.5 times more than the methane intensity target adopted in 2018 by the fossil industry’s Oil and Gas Climate Initiative.