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

<p>Mitigating 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 six oil and gas producing regions as a demonstration of MethaneSAT data capabilities. MethaneSAT was designed to address a gap in quantitative data of spatially-resolved emissions, by providing high-resolution area emissions (<span class="inline-formula"><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M1" display="inline" overflow="scroll" dspmath="mathml"><mrow><mo>∼</mo><mn mathvariant="normal">4</mn><mspace width="0.125em" linebreak="nobreak"/><mrow class="unit"><mi mathvariant="normal">km</mi></mrow><mo>×</mo><mn mathvariant="normal">4</mn><mspace linebreak="nobreak" width="0.125em"/><mrow class="unit"><mi mathvariant="normal">km</mi></mrow></mrow></math><span><svg:svg xmlns:svg="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="68pt" height="10pt" class="svg-formula" dspmath="mathimg" md5hash="69586e4a083490ba9662281478ee1ec7"><svg:image xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="acp-26-5961-2026-ie00001.svg" width="68pt" height="10pt" src="acp-26-5961-2026-ie00001.png"/></svg:svg></span></span>) with a wide-swath (220–440 km). The native pixel resolution of MethaneSAT is <span class="inline-formula"><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M2" display="inline" overflow="scroll" dspmath="mathml"><mrow><mo>∼</mo><mn mathvariant="normal">110</mn><mspace linebreak="nobreak" width="0.125em"/><mrow class="unit"><mi mathvariant="normal">m</mi></mrow><mo>×</mo><mn mathvariant="normal">400</mn><mspace width="0.125em" linebreak="nobreak"/><mrow class="unit"><mi mathvariant="normal">m</mi></mrow></mrow></math><span><svg:svg xmlns:svg="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="81pt" height="10pt" class="svg-formula" dspmath="mathimg" md5hash="6782db394f8b2a08bac669bbe3c993cb"><svg:image xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="acp-26-5961-2026-ie00002.svg" width="81pt" height="10pt" src="acp-26-5961-2026-ie00002.png"/></svg:svg></span></span> (at nadir) at which the column-averaged dry-air mole fraction of methane is retrieved before atmospheric inversion-based methane emissions data are produced. We analyze emissions data across six 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 <span class="inline-formula">t h⁻¹</span> (95 % c.i.: 303–516 <span class="inline-formula">t h⁻¹</span>) for the Permian basin to 30 <span class="inline-formula">t h⁻¹</span> (95 % c.i.: 20–41 <span class="inline-formula">t h⁻¹</span>) in the San Joaquin basin. Methane intensities also vary substantially by more than an order of magnitude in both gas-production-normalized and energy-normalized metrics. These differences reflect diverse factors, including oil versus gas production, infrastructure age, lower-producing wells, and emission mitigation controls. Across individual jurisdictions, including counties/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 emission quantification and mitigation strategies.</p>