Satellite Images Show Great Amounts of Methane Leaking From US Oil Fields

By Olive Marie First Posted: May 01, 2020 08:30 AM EDT

Operations of gas and oil in the Permian Basin, America's largest oil-producing area, are reportedly emitting more than double the amount of the emissions of methane into the atmosphere compared to the formerly thought- "enough wasted energy" to provide electricity to seven million Texan households for one year.

This, according to CBS News, is a result of new research by the Environmental Defense Fund and Harvard University researchers. Incidentally, the Permian Basin stretches through southeastern New Mexico and West Texas's area, equivalent to 250-mile by 250-mile.

The said area accounts for ten percent of the natural gas and more than one-third of crude oil in the United States. The study, which the journal, Science Advances published this week, also found that the methane gas leak's rate makes up 3.7 percent of all the gas taken out from the basin.

The said figure is roughly 60 percent higher than the rate of the national average leak rate. Essentially, methane is considered as a "potent greenhouse gas." And, since the said area is large, the excess waste is a considerable contribution to the world's already-warm climate.

The Highest Emissions Ever Measured

According to Dr. Steven Hamburg, the co-author of the study, and the EDF chief scientist, the said figures "are the highest emissions ever gauged from the major gas and oil basin in the US."

To map the emissions of methane, the team of researchers employed a space-borne sensor on Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument or TROPOMI, a European Space Agency satellite, which lasted from May 2018 to March 2019.

Since the year 2005, a swift rise in natural gas and oil production in the US has been primarily driven by fracking or more commonly known as hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling. And while some see the leaking of the methane gas as a big wastage of natural resources, others are more concentrated in the hazard the methane has posed.

Methane is an excessively powerful "heat-trapping greenhouse gas," which is quite stronger than its more popular carbon dioxide or CO2 counter.

Also, according to the research, there are over 220 times less methane in the atmosphere than there is carbon dioxide. However, due to methane's powerful heat-trapping characteristics, it contributes roughly 25 percent of the present global warming rate.

The Major Concern

Global methane concentrations have reportedly doubled since the Industrial Revolution, and this is mostly because of the activities of humans, such as burning fossil fuels, livestock farming, and decay from landfills.

A methane expert from Cornell University and a biochemist, Dr. Robert Howarth, said he is very concerned about the rising emissions of methane. He added, "Methane is 120 times more powerful" compared to CO2 "as a greenhouse gas," comparing mass-to-mass during the time the two gases are in the atmosphere.

Meanwhile, Hamburg said, the methane gas that escapes the Permian Basin is over excessive that it has become thrice the usual heating effect "it would have otherwise had through burning the gas."

More so, proof of this massive leakage weakens the condition made by the natural gas's proponents, which increase its cleaner-burning characteristic over that of its dirtier-burning cousin, coal.

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