Evidence of successful methane mitigation in one of Europe's most important oil production region
<p>Reducing methane emissions from the oil and gas production infrastructure is a cost-effective way for limiting global warming. In 2019, a measurement campaign in southern Romania found emission rates from the oil and gas sector substantially higher than the nationally reported emissions, wi...
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Copernicus Publications
2025-05-01
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| Series: | Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics |
| Online Access: | https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/25/5371/2025/acp-25-5371-2025.pdf |
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| author | G. Kuhlmann F. Stavropoulou F. Stavropoulou S. Schwietzke D. Zavala-Araiza A. Thorpe A. Hueni L. Emmenegger A. Calcan A. Calcan T. Röckmann D. Brunner |
| author_facet | G. Kuhlmann F. Stavropoulou F. Stavropoulou S. Schwietzke D. Zavala-Araiza A. Thorpe A. Hueni L. Emmenegger A. Calcan A. Calcan T. Röckmann D. Brunner |
| author_sort | G. Kuhlmann |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | <p>Reducing methane emissions from the oil and gas production infrastructure is a cost-effective way for limiting global warming. In 2019, a measurement campaign in southern Romania found emission rates from the oil and gas sector substantially higher than the nationally reported emissions, with a few high-emitting sources (“super-emitters”) contributing disproportionately to total emissions. In 2021, our follow-up airborne remote sensing campaign, covering over 80 <span class="inline-formula">%</span> of production sites, revealed a marked decrease in super-emitters. The observed change in the number of emitters is consistent with an emission reduction by 20 <span class="inline-formula">%</span>–60 <span class="inline-formula">%</span> from 2019 to 2021. This reduction is likely due to improvements in production infrastructure following the first campaign in 2019. This is further supported by additional site visits, which showed that many of the leaks identified in 2019 had indeed been mitigated. However, our top-down quantification remains higher than the bottom-up emission reports. Our study highlights the importance of measurement-based emission monitoring of climate change mitigation measures and illustrates the value of a multi-scale assessment integrating ground-based observations with large-scale airborne mapping to capture both the primary mode of emission sources and the rare, but significant, super-emitters.</p> |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-30f6f0be39fd41a382bb59fe2340e2e0 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 1680-7316 1680-7324 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-05-01 |
| publisher | Copernicus Publications |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics |
| spelling | doaj-art-30f6f0be39fd41a382bb59fe2340e2e02025-08-20T03:05:21ZengCopernicus PublicationsAtmospheric Chemistry and Physics1680-73161680-73242025-05-01255371538510.5194/acp-25-5371-2025Evidence of successful methane mitigation in one of Europe's most important oil production regionG. Kuhlmann0F. Stavropoulou1F. Stavropoulou2S. Schwietzke3D. Zavala-Araiza4A. Thorpe5A. Hueni6L. Emmenegger7A. Calcan8A. Calcan9T. Röckmann10D. Brunner11Empa, Laboratory for Air Pollution/Environmental Technology, Dübendorf, SwitzerlandInstitute for Marine and Atmospheric Research Utrecht, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the NetherlandsEnvironmental Defense Fund, Berlin, GermanyEnvironmental Defense Fund, Berlin, GermanyEnvironmental Defense Fund, Berlin, GermanyJet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USARemote Sensing Laboratories, Department of Geography, University of Zurich, Zurich, SwitzerlandEmpa, Laboratory for Air Pollution/Environmental Technology, Dübendorf, SwitzerlandINCAS, National Institute for Aerospace Research “Elie Carafoli”, Bucharest, RomaniaInternational Methane Emissions Observatory (IMEO), UNEP, Paris, FranceInstitute for Marine and Atmospheric Research Utrecht, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the NetherlandsEmpa, Laboratory for Air Pollution/Environmental Technology, Dübendorf, Switzerland<p>Reducing methane emissions from the oil and gas production infrastructure is a cost-effective way for limiting global warming. In 2019, a measurement campaign in southern Romania found emission rates from the oil and gas sector substantially higher than the nationally reported emissions, with a few high-emitting sources (“super-emitters”) contributing disproportionately to total emissions. In 2021, our follow-up airborne remote sensing campaign, covering over 80 <span class="inline-formula">%</span> of production sites, revealed a marked decrease in super-emitters. The observed change in the number of emitters is consistent with an emission reduction by 20 <span class="inline-formula">%</span>–60 <span class="inline-formula">%</span> from 2019 to 2021. This reduction is likely due to improvements in production infrastructure following the first campaign in 2019. This is further supported by additional site visits, which showed that many of the leaks identified in 2019 had indeed been mitigated. However, our top-down quantification remains higher than the bottom-up emission reports. Our study highlights the importance of measurement-based emission monitoring of climate change mitigation measures and illustrates the value of a multi-scale assessment integrating ground-based observations with large-scale airborne mapping to capture both the primary mode of emission sources and the rare, but significant, super-emitters.</p>https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/25/5371/2025/acp-25-5371-2025.pdf |
| spellingShingle | G. Kuhlmann F. Stavropoulou F. Stavropoulou S. Schwietzke D. Zavala-Araiza A. Thorpe A. Hueni L. Emmenegger A. Calcan A. Calcan T. Röckmann D. Brunner Evidence of successful methane mitigation in one of Europe's most important oil production region Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics |
| title | Evidence of successful methane mitigation in one of Europe's most important oil production region |
| title_full | Evidence of successful methane mitigation in one of Europe's most important oil production region |
| title_fullStr | Evidence of successful methane mitigation in one of Europe's most important oil production region |
| title_full_unstemmed | Evidence of successful methane mitigation in one of Europe's most important oil production region |
| title_short | Evidence of successful methane mitigation in one of Europe's most important oil production region |
| title_sort | evidence of successful methane mitigation in one of europe s most important oil production region |
| url | https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/25/5371/2025/acp-25-5371-2025.pdf |
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