Cutting Methane Emissions Is the Easiest Win in Operations

In my years working production facilities, first at Shell and now at Saudi Aramco, I have come to a simple conclusion. If you want to make a real difference in the energy transition without waiting a decade for new technology, start with methane. It is the lowest hanging fruit in operations, and too many teams still walk past it.

Methane is the primary component of natural gas. When it escapes unburned from a wellhead, a flare, a compressor seal, or a length of pipe, two things happen at once. You lose a saleable product, and you release a greenhouse gas that traps far more heat than carbon dioxide. The numbers make the case plainly. Methane has a global warming potential roughly 80 times that of carbon dioxide over a 20 year span, and about 28 to 36 times over 100 years. The International Energy Agency estimates that methane has been responsible for around 30 percent of the rise in global temperatures since the industrial revolution. The economics and the environmental case point in the same direction, which is rare. That alignment is exactly why this should be at the top of the operational agenda.

Why Methane Management Belongs in Daily Operations

The instinct in many organisations is to treat emissions as a reporting exercise handled by a separate team once a quarter. That is a mistake. Leaks are an operational problem, and they are best solved by the people who run the plant every day. A worn valve packing, an open thief hatch on a storage tank, or a pneumatic controller venting to atmosphere are all things a field operator can find and fix during a normal shift.

The scale here is significant. The IEA's Global Methane Tracker has estimated that the oil and gas sector emits well over 70 million tonnes of methane a year, and that roughly 70 percent of those emissions could be cut with technology that already exists. Even more striking, the agency has concluded that a large share of these abatement measures could be deployed at no net cost, because the value of the captured gas pays for the fix. There are few problems in our industry where the math works out that cleanly.

What has changed in the last few years is detection. We used to rely on infrequent manual surveys with handheld instruments. Now we have optical gas imaging cameras, fixed continuous monitors on critical equipment, and satellite and aerial data that can flag a problem before anyone walks the site. The technology is mature enough to deploy at scale. The harder part is building the workflow that turns a detection into a repair order, and then closing that loop quickly.

The data also tells us that self-reported figures often understate the true picture. In the Permian Basin in the United States, the Environmental Defense Fund's PermianMAP study used aircraft and tower measurements and found methane loss rates of around 3.7 percent of gross gas production, several times higher than what operators were reporting at the time. That gap is exactly why measurement matters. You cannot manage what you have not actually measured.

A Practical Path That Works

From experience, the programmes that succeed share a few characteristics. They keep the steps simple and they make ownership clear.

• Measure first, using a mix of continuous monitors on high risk equipment and periodic surveys elsewhere, so you know where the volume actually is.
• Prioritise by size, because a small number of large emitters usually account for most of the loss. Studies of US production have repeatedly found that roughly 5 percent of sites can drive about half of total emissions.
• Fix fast, with repair targets measured in days rather than reporting cycles.
• Verify the fix held, then feed the data back into maintenance planning.

The last point matters more than people expect. A leak that returns three months later was never really closed. Tying emissions data into your existing reliability and maintenance systems, rather than running a parallel process, is what makes the gains stick.

There is also a commercial argument that is becoming impossible to ignore. Buyers, lenders, and regulators are starting to ask for verified low emission gas. The European Union adopted its Methane Regulation in 2024, setting monitoring, reporting, and leak repair requirements that will eventually extend to imported gas. In the United States, the EPA has finalised rules to sharply cut methane from new and existing sources, backed by a waste emissions charge on large emitters. More than 150 countries have signed the Global Methane Pledge, committing to cut collective methane emissions at least 30 percent below 2020 levels by 2030. Operators who can demonstrate measured, reduced methane intensity will have an advantage in how their product is priced and accepted. This is no longer just good housekeeping. It is becoming a market requirement.

I am not suggesting methane reduction solves the transition on its own. We still need progress on flaring, electrification of facilities, and lower carbon fuels. But methane control is available now, it pays for itself, and it builds the operational discipline we will need for the harder challenges ahead. If your operation has not made it a priority, that is the place I would start tomorrow morning.