The aircraft taking the measurements was able to cover about 100 times more locations than previous ground surveys. By flying over active wells and pipelines in the New Mexico part of the basin, the aircraft detected 1,985 plumes of methane over the course of 15 months.
In addition to discovering a higher-than-expected methane leak, the survey also identified a few mega-emitting sites. Only about 5% of the beams detected by the aircraft are responsible for more than half of the measured emissions.
Additional findings call to strengthen methane regulations for oil and gas producers. At the time this data was collected, between 2018 and 2020, oil production was growing rapidly and regulations in the region were looser than they are today. New Mexico recently adopted law Prohibit regular burning of excess natural gas. Stronger federal policies are still needed to cut emissions in other oil-producing states like Texas, Jon Goldsteina senior policy director at the Environmental Defense Fund.
In any case, the new findings suggest that comprehensive surveys can shed light on the extent of methane emissions, which are often poorly understood even in large oil and gas basins like the Permian. As governments continue to set emissions targets, identifying problem spots can be a useful first step.
