A new study released on Monday revealed that offshore oil and gas operations in the Gulf of Mexico are emitting significantly more methane, which has a negative impact on the environment than official estimates indicate.
Using data collected from aircraft in part, climate scientists discovered that the extra methane coming from oil and gas platforms in the Gulf region raises their carbon intensity — the amount of climate-changing gas per unit of energy in the fuel — to twice as much as estimated by U.S. agencies like the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
According to the study, reductions in both methane and carbon dioxide emissions are essential to lessen the future severity of climate change.
Rob Jackson, a Stanford University climate scientist who was not involved in the study said “You don’t have to travel halfway around the world to find unusually high emissions in oil and gas fields. It’s happening right here in our backyards.”
The study’s method was commended by other climate scientists who weren’t participating.
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“This study represents a novel and thoughtful assessment of the climate impact of oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico,” said Riley Duren, a research scientist at the University of Arizona who leads Carbon Mapper, a group pioneering accessible and transparent information about where greenhouse gases are being released.
Duren added that “In particular, the authors have demonstrated the importance of jointly quantifying methane emissions from leakage and venting and carbon dioxide emissions from combustion.”
The majority of the methane emissions discovered, according to co-author and University of Michigan climate scientist Eric A. Kort, were coming from oil and gas activities in shallow seas, which are home to the oldest oil platforms.
According to Kort, the issue was particularly severe in areas where energy corporations primarily pursue oil and simply let the subsurface methane gas into the atmosphere because they aren’t really interested in it.
Story was adapted from AP
