Methane

The Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC) closed on Thursday with a mixed outlook on the future of the energy industry.

Methane regulation around the world is still significantly lacking, but signs of progress with mitigation are hopeful, industry experts said on the second day of ADIPEC.

U.S. energy secretary Chris Wright played down fears that a focus on gas exports would drive up prices for domestic U.S. gas users.

Methane satellites have captured snapshots of super emitter events. But a newly published “Methane Risk Map” depicts health risks from hazardous air pollutants associated with methane emissions.

The EU has pledged to buy U.S. LNG as part of a trade deal with Trump. The Trump administration and the U.S. LNG industry has seized on the trade talks to target the EU Methane Regulation with the goal of locking Europe into buying more American gas.

Higher methane emissions from gas infrastructure have negated much of U.S. climate progress in the past two decades. “Gas is a lot worse than I think is widely understood,” the author of a new study says.

Emissions-sensing satellites are among the pioneering technologies that have started to remodel the oil and gas sector, writes Kenzie Huffman, Director of Partnerships at Carbon Mapper, the California-based NGO.

Europe eyes a “simplification” of its Methane Regulation to speed up LNG imports. But experts say U.S. LNG dependency would not enhance energy security, and weakening rules would only lead to higher emissions.

BP has admitted to a gas leak at the Greater Tortue Ahmeyim project offshore Senegal and Mauritania, sparking environmental concerns and demands for transparency.

The EU is phasing in methane regulations for imported gas over the next few years. At CERAWeek, there was disagreement over how easy it will be to comply.

As part of the Trump administration’s deregulatory blitz, Congress scrapped a key climate policy from the Biden era.

The Nord Stream explosion resulted in the largest release of methane in history. And yet it was still a small fraction of the total methane released by the global oil and gas industry.

A powerful methane monitoring programme has identified major sources of methane pollution around the world, but only a tiny number of companies and governments have responded, the UN said at COP29.

A little-known but highly toxic greenhouse gas known as tropospheric ozone harms human health and damages crops and forests, clean air experts told COP29.

Researchers said the rising level of CO2 in the atmosphere is driving “increasingly dangerous global warming,” a stark warning on day three of COP29.