The Oilfield That Made the Ocean Burn Last Year Is Now Spewing Methane

The platform is owned by Pemex, Mexico’s state-owned and operated oil and gas company. While neither Reuters nor the ESA researchers could confirm the cause of either methane leak, previous reports suggest Pemex has a long history of not taking care of its aging oil and gas infrastructure, including at Ku-Maloob-Zaap. There were around 100 deaths attributable to accidents on Pemex sites between 2010 and 2017, according to research firm Statista.

While methane doesn’t stay in the atmosphere as long as carbon dioxide, it is around 80 times more potent and can wreak serious havoc on the climate in the short term. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in its landmark report last year for the first time noted that rising global methane emissions are posing a big problem for short- and long-term climate goals. Oil and gas production is one of the world’s biggest sources of methane emissions, thanks in large part to venting and flaring the gas during drilling and recovery.

In June, Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, said Pemex will invest $2 billion to try to almost completely eliminate methane emissions from the oil and gas sector; Mexico is also part of a global pledge to cut methane emissions 30% by 2030. The World Bank’s annual Global Gas Flaring Tracker found that Mexico is one of the top 10 flaring countries in the world and one of three that has seen flaring increase over the past few years.

Pemex did not respond to Reuters’s request for comment. Earther has reached out to the company for comment, and we will update this article if we hear back.