'131k tonnes in 205 days': Largest-ever methane leak recorded in Kazakhstan

A team of researchers havedetected the largest-ever leak of methane in Kazakhstan after combining satellite data from several missions, such as TROPOMI, GHGSat, PRISMA, EnMAP, EMIT and Sentinel-2. Led by Dr Luis Guanter, a professor at the Universitat Politècnica de València and head of the LARS Group at the Institute of Water and Environmental Engineering (IIAMA-UPV), the team found that the leak took place at an oil well in the Central Asian country's Karaturun East field.

A study, quantifying and tracking the extent of methane leaks, has been published in Environmental Science & Technology Letters.

When did the leak start?

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According to the study, the leak started on June 9, 2023. It led to a 10-metre-high fire and the formation of a15-metre-wide crater. Over the next 205 days, the leak ended up releasing approximately 131.00 metric tons of methane into the atmosphere.

It made it the largest methane-leak event in history, outperforming previous events such as Aliso Canyon in 2015, Ohio in 2018, and Louisiana in 2019.

The leak was finally fixed on 25 December 2023 by injecting drilling mud.

Significance

The purpose of the study is to devise ways to better deal with such large events of gas leaks and deploy methods to detect plumes in the early stages.

“These optimized methods include the implementation of a tailored filter to detect plumes and specific methane quantification models for hyperspectral instruments,” said researchers.

Scientists rely on data from advanced satellites to detect and quantify methane emissions, especially in faraway regions where events generally go unnoticed.

“Our work demonstrates how advanced space-based tools are essential for discovering and managing these super-emission events, enabling accurate reconstruction and robust emissions quantification,” said the LARS researchers.

“Natural gas, in addition to being an important energy source, is also a greenhouse gas responsible for almost a third of global warming, as it contains more than 90% methane. The difference with CO2 is that it has a greater impact in the short term, so it is necessary to act at source and reduce emissions,” the researchers noted.

(With inputs from agencies)