Kazakhstan: Massive Methane Leak Detected from Space:
The most dangerous methane gas went unnoticed in a well in Kazakhstan last year. This information is taken from analysis. The results were shared with the BBC investigation.Approximately 127,000 tons of natural gas were confirmed to have leaked during this period. This was because a huge fire broke out during the six-month excavation.Methane is a more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.The owner of the well through which the water flow occurs is Bucharji Petroleum Company. The company does not accept large amounts of gas.
What experts say:
US agency’s greenhouse gas equivalent calculator for the environment. According to the organization, the impact of this amount of gas is equivalent to powering more than 717,000 cars for a year. Mainfredi Keltagiron is the director of the United Nations International Methane Emissions Observatory. “The size and timing of the flow is unusual. It is huge,” he said.The flow began on June 9, 2023. The incident occurred as a result of an explosion during well excavation. The incident took place in the Mangisto region of Western Kazakhstan. After this incident, the fire continued until the end of the year.
The fire was brought under control on December 25, 2023. Local officials told the news agency that the well has now been sealed with cement.
Natural gas is methane gas, which is a transparent gas.But when sunlight passes through the methane cloud, it leaves streaks that satellites can easily detect.
How many times has a thick layer of methane been trapped?
The first inspection of this channel was carried out by the French organization CEROS. Now their analysis has been sent to the Netherlands Research Center Institute and the Polytechnic University of Valencia in Spain.Scientists who analyzed the data obtained from satellites found that the methane density was 115 times between June and December.Based on this, scientists estimate that 127,000 tons of methane flowed from the well.
This would be the second largest source of methane from human activities.
Luis Gunter of the Polytechnic University of Valencia in Spain, who helped determine the flow, said that a strong flow would only occur if the Nordic Stream was interrupted.
In September 2022, Russia’s pipeline Nord Stream 1 and 2 to Germany were affected by an underwater explosion. This resulted in the release of 230,000 tonnes of methane.According to the International Energy Agency, methane is responsible for 30% of the increase in global temperature since the Industrial Revolution.Satellite images influenced by clouds and other factors convince scientists that the massive water flow occurred in only one body of water.
Satellites have also detected methane:
“For methane detection, we analyzed methane from five different satellites,” Gunter said. “Each of the detectors measures methane uniquely, but we measured only the most accurate.” At the same time. The Department of Ecology of the National Academy of Sciences in the Mangystau region confirmed that methane concentration levels exceeded 10 locations between June 9 and September 21. Methane levels were said to be 50 times higher than levels taken in the hours after the explosion.
However, the Kazakh company Buchagi Neft, which owns the well, denied the allegations of a large amount of gas leakage.The company said that the gas in the well is not at a significant level. They said the oil must have burned when it came out of the well.
They also believe that only water vapor is released into space and forms white clouds that can be seen from space.
Buchagi Neft also appointed experts to conduct external research on the subject. . Doubts have been raised about the analysis results of the French organization CEROS.
According to the company, the satellite can accidentally identify other gases, such as water vapor, in addition to methane in the environment. Additionally, scientists have not yet found out how much methane was in the atmosphere before the explosion.The CEROS team rejects these results.”We tested the possibility of water vapor or smoke,” said Luis Gunter of the Polytechnic University of Valencia.He also said that scientists were only looking for methane gas. The method of analysis is not affected by the previous presence of methane in the environment.
What resolution has Kazakhstan taken?
The Industrial Security Committee of Atrau investigated the causes of this incident. The committee found that Buchagi Neft failed to properly maintain the drilling of the well.Additionally, a subcontractor of the company, Jamon Inergo, was found guilty of not following proper procedures during excavation. Jamon Inergo has denied this allegation.The Energy Ministry of Kazakhstan stated in a statement to the BBC that the blowout was a complex technical problem, and there is no universal way to prevent such incidents.This is not the first time that large-scale methane blowouts have been discovered in Central Asia.Like neighboring Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan has recorded numerous incidents of large-scale methane blowouts. Scientists refer to such events as ‘super-emitters.’Gunter says that such incidents have been observed in the Mangistau region. He said, “This is the largest methane blowout we have detected so far from ‘normal’ human activities.”In the COP28 climate summit held last year, Kazakhstan joined the Global Methane Pledge. This pledge is a voluntary agreement by more than 150 countries to reduce their methane emissions by 30 percent by 2030.
