Methane leaks alone from Turkmenistan’s two main fossil fuel fields caused more global heating in 2022 than the entire carbon emissions of the UK, satellite data has revealed.
Emissions of the potent greenhouse gas from the oil- and gas-rich country are “mind-boggling”, and an “infuriating” problem that should be easy to fix, experts have told the Guardian.
The data produced by Kayrros for the Guardian found that the western fossil fuel field in Turkmenistan, on the Caspian coast, leaked 2.6m tonnes of methane in 2022. The eastern field emitted 1.8m tonnes. Together, the two fields released emissions equivalent to 366m tonnes of CO2, more than the UK’s annual emissions, which are the 17th-biggest in the world.
Methane emissions have surged alarmingly since 2007 and this acceleration may be the biggest threat to keeping below 1.5C of global heating, according to scientists. It also seriously risks triggering catastrophic climate tipping points, researchers say.
What a shame it can't be piped away for sale, or used locally to generate electricity which could benefit the population or be exported...
Re: methane emissions from Turkmenistan revealed
Posted: Tue May 09, 2023 9:41 am
by Mr Gus
With it's poor human rights records it is RIPE for FOSSIL FUEL company plundering & enrichment of a few at a cost to the worst off.
Ex soviet country till 1991, now a "president for life" dictat.
" On 28 December 1999, Niyazov was declared President for Life of Turkmenistan by the Mejlis (parliament), which itself had taken office a week earlier in elections that included only candidates hand-picked by President Niyazov. No opposition candidates were allowed"
Gas via 3 pipelines to china.
Russian purchases were blocked (curtailed) some years ago after intervention from gazprom.
The wayback news piece from 2022 is an eye-opener as to context for the OP's piece..
Staggering losses, and environmental damage. The ageing Eastern European gas pipelines, plus the 'dodgy' shale oil/gas in the US is making everything so much harder.
But ..... (blatant attempt to spin some positivity) ..... there is a faint silver lining. This shows that the gains from moving away from FF's have a greater impact/benefit, than just the emissions when we burn them. Be it reduced emissions from fugitive emissions, or the huge amount of FF energy used to transport this energy, such as international shipping - transportation of FF's accounts for ~40% of shipping by mass.
Re: methane emissions from Turkmenistan revealed
Posted: Tue May 09, 2023 10:23 am
by Moxi
How strange i was only watching a video linked to this subject last night, ignore the advert mid point as the history and background info is interesting as much as it is disturbing:
Moxi
Re: methane emissions from Turkmenistan revealed
Posted: Tue May 09, 2023 1:05 pm
by smegal
According to google:
A single cow produces between 154 to 264 pounds of methane gas per year. Not counting for the emissions of any other livestock, 1.5 billion cattle, raised specifically for meat production worldwide, emit at least 231 billion pounds of methane into the methane into the atmosphere each year (Our World in Data).
231000000000 lb = 104779837.47 tonnes
104779837.47/100,000=104.77 million tonnes
So Turkmenistan emits over 3x more methane than ALL cattle in the world. Bearing in mind that this methane is form the ground, not the natural carbon cycle.
That's nuts!
I misread the methane emissions.
Re: methane emissions from Turkmenistan revealed
Posted: Tue May 09, 2023 1:16 pm
by nowty
smegal wrote: ↑Tue May 09, 2023 1:05 pm
According to google:
A single cow produces between 154 to 264 pounds of methane gas per year. Not counting for the emissions of any other livestock, 1.5 billion cattle, raised specifically for meat production worldwide, emit at least 231 billion pounds of methane into the methane into the atmosphere each year (Our World in Data).
231000000000 lb = 104779837.47 tonnes
104779837.47/100,000=104.77 million tonnes
So Turkmenistan emits over 3x more methane than ALL cattle in the world. Bearing in mind that this methane is form the ground, not the natural carbon cycle.
That's nuts!
The article says its 2.6m tonnes of methane from Turkmenistan, the 366m tonnes quoted is the CO2 equivalent.
smegal wrote: ↑Tue May 09, 2023 1:05 pm
According to google:
A single cow produces between 154 to 264 pounds of methane gas per year. Not counting for the emissions of any other livestock, 1.5 billion cattle, raised specifically for meat production worldwide, emit at least 231 billion pounds of methane into the methane into the atmosphere each year (Our World in Data).
231000000000 lb = 104779837.47 tonnes
104779837.47/100,000=104.77 million tonnes
So Turkmenistan emits over 3x more methane than ALL cattle in the world. Bearing in mind that this methane is form the ground, not the natural carbon cycle.
That's nuts!
The article says its 2.6m tonnes of methane from Turkmenistan, the 366m tonnes quoted is the CO2 equivalent.
Yes, it is criminal what the ff industry is getting away with, but as long as we (collectively) are dependent on gas and oil, they've got us over a barrel and can (quite literally) get away with murder. That's actually my principle motivation for getting an ev, as the car is my last dependency on ff.
Another interesting article from September last year:-
The focus of the above article is the poisoning of large numbers of people in iraq through gas flaring, essentially by major companies such as BP, shell and so on, but because the flaring is done by (owned) subsidiary companies, it allows the big names to claim they don't do any flaring, and are meeting their legal requirements (I'm paraphrasing a bit as it's a while since I read the article). The article ends with the point that if all the gas that was flared off (globally, i think) was actually captured it would cover more than 90% of Europe's needs to replace russian imports.
