Turkmenistan dominates oil and gas methane emissions: GHGSat

Turkmenistan accounted for over half the global methane emissions from oil and gas activities that were identified by GHGSat in 2021, the Quebec-based satellite monitoring company reported on March 24.

Asia accounted for 69% of the oil and gas methane emissions that GHGSat measured, and 74% of that share came just from Turkmenistan, the company said. This gives the country a 51% share of the global total. GHG noted that the five biggest emissions recorded in Turkmenistan in 2021 came from a single location, and totalled 378,044 metric tons.

North America accounted for 17% of the global total, with most of these emissions coming from the Permian oil and gas basin in the US. Africa contributed 10%, Europe 3% and South America and Australia Oceania 1% each.

"Public satellite systems can cover wide areas at coarse resolution and very high detection threshold to assess regional emissions and identify hotspots," GHGSat said. "GHGSat satellites pinpoint the precise source of much lower emissions, providing actionable data in hours to operators."