National quantifications of methane emissions from fuel exploitation using high resolution inversions of satellite observations

Lu Shen (), Daniel J. Jacob, Ritesh Gautam, Mark Omara, Tia R. Scarpelli, Alba Lorente, Daniel Zavala-Araiza, Xiao Lu, Zichong Chen and Jintai Lin
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Lu Shen: Peking University
Daniel J. Jacob: Harvard University
Ritesh Gautam: Environmental Defense Fund
Mark Omara: Environmental Defense Fund
Tia R. Scarpelli: University of Edinburgh
Alba Lorente: Harvard University
Daniel Zavala-Araiza: Environmental Defense Fund
Xiao Lu: Sun Yat-sen University
Zichong Chen: Harvard University
Jintai Lin: Peking University

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Reducing methane emissions from fossil fuel exploitation (oil, gas, coal) is an important target for climate policy, but current national emission inventories submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) are highly uncertain. Here we use 22 months (May 2018-Feb 2020) of satellite observations from the TROPOMI instrument to better quantify national emissions worldwide by inverse analysis at up to 50 km resolution. We find global emissions of 62.7 ± 11.5 (2σ) Tg a−1 for oil-gas and 32.7 ± 5.2 Tg a−1 for coal. Oil-gas emissions are 30% higher than the global total from UNFCCC reports, mainly due to under-reporting by the four largest emitters including the US, Russia, Venezuela, and Turkmenistan. Eight countries have methane emission intensities from the oil-gas sector exceeding 5% of their gas production (20% for Venezuela, Iraq, and Angola), and lowering these intensities to the global average level of 2.4% would reduce global oil-gas emissions by 11 Tg a−1 or 18%.

Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-40671-6

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