Satellite quantification of methane emissions and oil–gas methane intensities from individual countries in the Middle East and North Africa: implications for climate action

Chen, Zichong; Jacob, Daniel J.; Gautam, Ritesh; Omara, Mark; Stavins, Robert N.; Stowe, Robert C.; Nesser, Hannah; Sulprizio, Melissa P.; Lorente, Alba; Varon, Daniel J.; Lu, Xiao; Shen, Lu; Qu, Zhen; Pendergrass, Drew C.; Hancock, Sarah

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-5945-2023

Articles | Volume 23, issue 10

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-5945-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-5945-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 23, issue 10

Research article

|

31 May 2023

Research article |

| 31 May 2023

Satellite quantification of methane emissions and oil–gas methane intensities from individual countries in the Middle East and North Africa: implications for climate action

Zichong Chen, Daniel J. Jacob, Ritesh Gautam, Mark Omara, Robert N. Stavins, Robert C. Stowe, Hannah Nesser, Melissa P. Sulprizio, Alba Lorente, Daniel J. Varon, Xiao Lu, Lu Shen, Zhen Qu, Drew C. Pendergrass, and Sarah Hancock

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-5945-2023-supplement

Data sets

Methane retrieved from TROPOMI: improvement of the data product and validation of the first 2 years of measurements A. Lorente, T. Borsdorff, A. Butz, O. Hasekamp, J. aan de Brugh, A. Schneider, L. Wu, F. Hase, R. Kivi, D. Wunch, F. Pollard, K. Shiomi, N. M. Deutscher, V. A. Velazco, C. M. Roehl, P. O. Wennberg, T. Warneke, and J. Landgraf https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-665-2021

University of Leicester GOSAT Proxy XCH4 v9.0 R. Parker and H. Boesch https://doi.org/10.5285/18ef8247f52a4cb6a14013f8235cc1eb

Multi-laboratory compilation of atmospheric methane data for the period 1983--2020 K. N. Schuldt, T. Aalto, A. Andrews, S. Aoki, J. Arduini, B. Baier, P. Bergamaschi, T. Biermann, S. C. Biraud, and H. Boenisch https://doi.org/10.25925/20211001

Global Fuel Exploitation Inventory (GFEI) T. R. Scarpelli and D. J. Jacob https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/HH4EUM

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Short summary

We quantify methane emissions from individual countries in the Middle East and North Africa by inverse analysis of 2019 TROPOMI satellite observations of atmospheric methane. We show that the ability to simply relate oil/gas emissions to activity metrics is compromised by stochastic nature of local infrastructure and management practices. We find that the industry target for oil/gas methane intensity is achievable through associated gas capture, modern infrastructure, and centralized operations.