Methane emissions from America’s biggest oilfield have fallen sharply as producers ratchet up efforts to find and plug leaks in response to President Joe Biden’s sweeping clampdown on the potent greenhouse gas.
Emissions of the gas in the sprawling Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico — home to almost half of US oil production — plunged 26 per cent last year, according to a new study.
Producers in the oilfield spilled about 96bn cubic feet of methane into the atmosphere in 2023, versus 131bn cu ft in 2022, according to the report from consultancy S&P Global Commodity Insights and Insight M, which carries out aerial detection surveys.