Methane intensity and emissions across major oil and gas basins and individual jurisdictions using MethaneSAT observations

Abstract

Mitigating anthropogenic methane emissions is widely recognized as an effective strategy to reduce near-term climate warming. Here, we use satellite observations from MethaneSAT (2024-2025) to characterize methane emissions from six oil and gas producing regions as a demonstration of MethaneSAT data capabilities. MethaneSAT was designed to address a gap in quantitative data of spatially-resolved emissions, by providing high-resolution area emissions (∼ 4 km × 4 km) with a wide-swath (220-440 km). The native pixel resolution of MethaneSAT is ∼ 110m × 400m (at nadir) at which the column-averaged dry-air mole fraction of methane is retrieved before atmospheric inversion-based methane emissions data are produced. We analyze emissions data across six oil and gas producing regions: the Permian (USA), San Joaquin (USA), Eagle Ford (USA/Mexico), Amu Darya (Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan), and the Zagros Foldbelt (Iran/Iraq). Regional oil and gas emissions span more than an order of magnitude, ranging from 408 th-1 (95 % c.i.: 303-516 th-1) for the Permian basin to 30 th-1 (95 % c.i.: 20-41 th-1) in the San Joaquin basin. Methane intensities also vary substantially by more than an order of magnitude in both gas-production-normalized and energy-normalized metrics. These differences reflect diverse factors, including oil versus gas production, infrastructure age, lower-producing wells, and emission mitigation controls. Across individual jurisdictions, including counties/districts, we find consistent underestimation by gridded EPA-GHGI and EDGAR bottom-up inventories relative to MethaneSAT-derived emissions. Overall, MethaneSAT data provide basin-wide and sub-regional insights into methane emissions and intensities, offering critical scientific and policy-relevant information to support targeted emission quantification and mitigation strategies.