Methane pollution from the largest oilfield in the US has soared back to pre-pandemic levels as a recovery in drilling undermines industry pledges to crack down on emissions of the potent greenhouse gas. The rise in methane pollution from Texas and New Mexico’s Permian Basin oilfield will heap pressure on oil and gas drillers and may embolden the Biden administration’s crackdown on the sector ahead of critical international climate change meetings this year.
Emissions of methane, which can have up to 80 times the warming effect of carbon dioxide, plunged last year as a deep industry downturn halted most new drilling across the US. The drop mirrored a pandemic-driven downturn in carbon emissions as economies around the world locked down and travel halted.
But an oil price rally in recent months has spurred a pick-up in drilling, pushing emissions quickly back to pre-pandemic levels, according to research published in the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, using data collected by the Environmental Defense Fund.
Recommended Those findings are backed up by others in the burgeoning effort to track emissions. Kayrros, a company that uses satellites to monitor methane plumes, shows Permian emissions in January rose
Shale Oil & Gas to 190,000 tonnes, close to their Oil price rally tests drilling discipline level from a year before, just ahead in US shale industry of one of the worst drilling downturns in decades.