Methane intensity and emissions across major oil and gas basins and individual jurisdictions using MethaneSAT observations

Abstract. Mitigating global anthropogenic methane emissions is widely recognized as an effective strategy to reduce near-term climate warming. Here, we use satellite observations from MethaneSAT (2024–2025) to characterize methane emissions from major oil and gas basins worldwide. MethaneSAT addresses a critical gap in access to quantitative measurements of spatially distributed area emissions, providing high-resolution (~4 km × 4 km), wide-swath (220–440 km) coverage. We analyze aggregated MethaneSAT emissions across six major oil and gas producing regions: the Permian (USA), San Joaquin (USA), Eagle Ford (USA/Mexico), Amu Darya (Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan), and the Zagros Foldbelt (Iran/Iraq). Regional oil and gas emissions span more than an order of magnitude, ranging from 408 t h⁻¹ (95% CI: 303–516 t h⁻¹) for the Permian basin to 30 t h⁻¹ (95% CI: 20.3–41.1 t h⁻¹) in the San Joaquin basin. Methane intensities also vary substantially across basins and sub-basins, with more than an order of magnitude variation in both production-normalized and energy-normalized metrics. These differences reflect diverse factors, including contrasts in oil versus gas production, infrastructure age, contributions of lower-producing wells, and presence or absence of emission mitigation practices. Across jurisdictions, including counties and districts, we find consistent underestimation by gridded EPA-GHGI and EDGAR bottom-up inventories relative to MethaneSAT-derived emissions. Overall, MethaneSAT data provide basin-wide and sub-regional insights into methane emissions and intensities, offering critical scientific and policy-relevant information to support targeted and effective methane mitigation strategies.