Methane well leaks greenhouse gas equivalent to nearly 800,000 cars

Kazakhstan Based on satellite data, experts estimate the amount of methane released from a well at Karaturun Vostochny from June to December 2023 to be up to 127,000 tons.

Smoke billows from a methane well for about six months. Photo: Instagram/Mangystau Ecology Department — Smoke billows from a methane well for about six months. Photo: *Instagram/Mangystau Ecology Department*

A methane well in Kazakhstan that leaked for 205 days last year is estimated to have released 127,000 tons of methane into the Earth's atmosphere, environmental scientists said, Business Insider reported on February 17. The new figures were released in an analysis by an international team of researchers from France, Spain, and the Netherlands. That's the equivalent of more than 791,000 gasoline-powered cars driving for a year, according to a calculator on the US Environmental Protection Agency's website.

Using satellite data, scientists recorded a large amount of methane escaping from well 303 at the Karaturun Vostochny gas field in eastern Kazakhstan when an explosion occurred on June 9, 2023, during exploratory drilling. The explosion created a 10-meter-high flame and a 15-meter-wide crater, making it difficult to seal. The fire was finally brought under control on December 25, 2023, when Buzachi Neft, the well operator, pumped drilling mud into the well. However, the company denied that a large amount of methane had leaked, saying that only a negligible amount had escaped.

Methane is a greenhouse gas estimated to have a global warming potential about 28 times greater than CO2. It is also responsible for about 30% of the increase in global temperatures since the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Methane gas is transparent to the human eye. But when sunlight passes through a methane plume, it creates a unique signature that can be tracked by some satellites. The Karaturun Vostochny methane leak was initially investigated by the French geo-analytics company Kayrros. The analysis was confirmed by the Netherlands Institute for Space Research and the Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain.

This could be the second-largest leak ever recorded caused by humans, according to Luis Guanter, an expert at the Polytechnic University of Valencia, who was part of the research team. The most serious leak was the Nord Stream pipeline incident in 2022.

Thu Thao (According to Business Insider )

Source link