Abstract. Mitigation of methane emissions from the oil and gas sector is an effective way to reduce the near-term climate warming and losses of a valuable energy resource. The oil and gas value chain contributes at least 25 % of anthropogenic methane emissions globally and is the second largest methane-emitting sector in the United States. Here, we assess methane emissions in regions accounting for 70 % of US onshore oil and gas production in 2023 using data collected by the MethaneAIR airborne imaging spectrometer. We quantify total methane emissions across all observed regions to be ∼ 9 (7.8–10) Tg yr−1, with ∼ 90 % of emissions estimated from the oil and gas sector (∼ 8 Tg yr−1, equivalent to a methane loss rate of 1.6 % of gross gas production), which is about five times higher than reported by the US EPA. Both oil and gas emissions and gas production-normalized methane loss rates varied considerably by basin. Highly productive basins such as the Permian, Appalachian, and Haynesville-Bossier had the highest methane emissions (95–314 t h−1), whereas lower producing basins possibly associated with older infrastructure such as the Uinta and Piceance had higher loss rates (> 7 %). We found good agreement across total emissions quantified by MethaneAIR and other empirical and remote sensing estimates at national/basin/target-level scales. This work underscores the increasing value of remote sensing data for quantifying methane emissions, characterizing intensity of methane losses across the oil and gas sector, and mapping inter-basin emissions variability, which are all critical for tracking methane mitigation targets set by industry and governments.
MacKay et al. (Mon,) studied this question.