https://www.npr.org/2022/02/03/1077392791/a-satellite-finds-massive-methane-leaks-from-gas-pipelines

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Satellites have detected massive gas leaks A satellite has detected
massive leaks of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, from natural gas
plants and pipelines. Most of these releases are deliberate,
resulting from sloppy pipeline repairs.

Climate

A satellite finds massive methane leaks from gas pipelines

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February 3, 20226:05 PM ET
Heard on Morning Edition
Dan Charles

Dan Charles

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A satellite finds massive methane leaks from gas pipelines

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[gettyimage]
Enlarge this image

Flared natural gas is burned off at a natural gas plant. Methane, the
main ingredient in natural gas, can leak from natural gas plants and
pipelines. Spencer Platt/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Flared natural gas is burned off at a natural gas plant. Methane, the
main ingredient in natural gas, can leak from natural gas plants and
pipelines.

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

There's new evidence, collected from orbiting satellites, that oil
and gas companies are routinely venting huge amounts of methane into
the air.

Methane is the main ingredient in natural gas, the fuel. It's also a
powerful greenhouse gas, second only to carbon dioxide in its warming
impact. And Thomas Lauvaux, a researcher with the Laboratory of
Climate and Environmental Sciences in France, says there's been a
persistent discrepancy between official estimates of methane
emissions and field observations.

"For years, every time we had data [on methane emissions] -- we were
flying over an area, we were driving around -- we always found more
emissions than we were supposed to see," he says.

Researchers turned to satellites in an effort to get more clarity.
The European Space Agency launched an instrument three years ago
called the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) that can
measure the methane in any 12-square-mile block of the atmosphere,
day by day.

Lauvaux says that TROPOMI detected methane releases that the official
estimates did not foresee. "No one expects that pipelines are
sometimes wide open, pouring gas into the atmosphere," he says.

Yet they were. Over the course of two years, during 2019 and 2020,
the researchers counted more than 1,800 large bursts of methane,
often releasing several tons of methane per hour. Lauvaux and his
colleagues published their findings this week in the journal Science.

The researchers consulted with gas companies, trying to understand
the source of these "ultra-emitting events." They found that some
releases resulted from accidents. More often, though, they were
deliberate. Gas companies simply vented gas from pipelines or other
equipment before carrying out repairs or maintenance operations.

Lauvaux says these releases could be avoided. There's equipment that
allows gas to be removed and captured before repairs. "It can totally
be done," he says. "It takes time, for sure, resources and staff. But
it's doable. Absolutely."

The countries where bursts of methane happened most frequently
included the former Soviet republic of Turkmenistan, Russia, the
United States, Iran, Kazakhstan and Algeria. Lauvaux says they found
relatively few such releases in some other countries with big gas
industries, such as Saudi Arabia.

According to the researchers, the large releases of methane that they
detected accounted for 8-12% of global methane emissions from oil and
gas infrastructure during that time.

Steven Hamburg, chief scientist for the Environmental Defense Fund,
which has focused on the problem of methane emissions, says these
massive releases are dramatic. But it's also important to remember
the "ordinary" leaks that make up the other 90% of emissions from oil
and gas facilities. "They really matter," he says.

EDF is planning to launch its own methane-detecting satellite in
about a year, which will take much sharper pictures, showing smaller
leaks. Other organizations are developing their own methane
detectors.

That new monitoring network will transform the conversation about
methane emissions, Hamburg says. Historically, no one could tell
where methane was coming from, "and that's part of the reason we
haven't taken, globally, the action that we should. It was just out
of sight, out of mind," Hamburg says. "Well, it no longer will be. It
will be totally visible."

He thinks that will translate into more pressure on oil and gas
companies to fix those leaks.

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