Doug Sheridan: Methane Emissions From Major US Oil Fields See Sharp Reduction

[Note: Doug Sheridan is a keen energy analyst and writer who posts commentaries on LinkedIn each day. I read him on a regular basis and, if you are on LinkedIn, you should read him, too.]

The FT writes, methane emissions from the US’s biggest oilfield have fallen sharply as producers ratchet up efforts to find and plug leaks in of the potent greenhouse gas. Emissions of the gas in the Permian Basin—home to almost half of US oil production—plunged 26 per cent last year, according to a new study.

Producers in the oilfield mitted about 96bn cubic feet of methane into the atmosphere in 2023, versus 131bn cu ft in 2022, S&P Global Commodity Insights and Insight M, which carries out aerial detection surveys.

“Companies are taking action and it’s working,” said Raoul LeBlanc, VP of upstream at S&P. “People have gotten after [methane] because of the societal impetus and because of the regulatory pressures—and they now have the tools and the data.”