The new study, published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology Letters, identified for the first time a leak from an oil and gas production platform in the Gulf of Mexico that released some 40,000 tons over 17 days in December. The platform, near Campeche in southern Mexico, is one of the largest in the country.
“Our results show how satellites can detect methane trails from marine infrastructure,” said one of the authors, Luis Guanter, from the Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain, in a statement.
“This opens the way for the systematic control of industrial emissions from offshore platforms“, he added. In recent years they have developed satellite methane leak detection methods at ground-based facilities.
But available techniques could not identify leaks from offshore facilities, which account for about 30% of global production. The oceans’ ability to absorb shortwave infrared limits the amount of light reflected and therefore detectable by satellites.
To overcome this problem, the team of researchers succeeded in developing a new method to measure the solar radiation reflected from the sea surface.
Methane is responsible for about 30% of global warming. Although it remains in the atmosphere for much less time than CO2, it has 80 times more heating power over a 20-year period.
Source: Ambito
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