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

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Final revised paper (published on 31 May 2023)
Supplement to the final revised paper
Preprint (discussion started on 09 Jan 2023)
Supplement to the preprint

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

RC1: 'Comment on egusphere-2022-1504', Lena Höglund-Isaksson, 30 Jan 2023

Please see uploaded pdf file.

Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2022-1504-RC1
CC1: 'Comment on egusphere-2022-1504', Nathan Malarich, 28 Feb 2023

The comment was uploaded in the form of a supplement: https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2023/egusphere-2022-1504/egusphere-2022-1504-CC1-supplement.pdf

Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2022-1504-CC1
RC2: 'Comment on egusphere-2022-1504', Amy Townsend-Small, 11 Mar 2023

This is a very interesting and useful paper! I learned a lot by reading it. I have a few questions/comments.
Line 148/Figures 2 and 3 - Here you say Iraq, Algeria and Oman have not reported their emissions to UNFCCC since 2000 but what about Libya and Iran? I know their UNFCCC status and Paris Agreement participation is tenuous. I guess in general it would be interesting to know more about the inventories these countries report! As you refer to, this has implications for the Global Stocktake. I realize this is a minimal aspect of your paper but some of these countries are struggling to make an accurate inventory, and your paper could help here.
Line 384: Here my previous point comes up again. Do Iran and Libya report emissions to UNFCCC? What about Iraq, where does that bottom-up inventory come from? We know Iraq has some of the highest levels of venting and flaring from satellite observations, but I'm not sure how well they are accounting for these emissions.
Line 437: Interesting that Iran may have higher than expected emissions from livestock and waste. I wonder what their cattle/other ruminant head count is?
Line 476: I know Turkey also has a lot of reservoirs? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southeastern_Anatolia_Project
Line 498: A study (by one of you) also showed that older marginal wells are a major contributor to methane emissions: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-29709-3. I have wondered how many marginal wells there are in some of these countries?
Line 555: Doesn't Qatar do a lot of flaring in the North Field? (Zhan Zhang et al 2021 Environ. Res. Lett. 16 124039). This reduces methane emissions but it creates another problem.
Line 643: Can the bottom-up inventory be included in the supplement?

Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2022-1504-RC2
AC1: 'Response to RC1, RC2, and CC1', Zichong Chen, 29 Mar 2023

Please find the response to reviewers attached as a supplement.

Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2022-1504-AC1

Peer review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision | EF: Editorial file upload

AR by Zichong Chen on behalf of the Authors (29 Mar 2023) Author's response Author's tracked changes Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (17 Apr 2023) by Joshua Fu

AR by Zichong Chen on behalf of the Authors (21 Apr 2023) Manuscript

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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.