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FSUOGM PIPELINES & TRANSPORT FSUOGM

effect of the ruptures poses far more serious taking place, either deliberately or because the
long-term questions for the world’s ability to technology is not working.
meet its net-zero goals.
He warned that the damage to the pipeline In comparison
posed a problem beyond energy security. “This Putting the Nord Stream leak into perspective,
is the most wasteful way to generate emissions,” the world's coal mines knowingly release the
he said. same amount of methane, 300,000 tonnes in
The one ray of hope from the leaks is that the total, every 2.5 days, while the mines released
sudden discharges of methane into the atmos- 43.5mn tonnes of CH4 in 2021.
phere will offer scientists new insights into how Meanwhile, the Danish government said that
methane affects the climate and will increase the climate impact of the gas leak corresponded
the knowledge base required to combat global to about one-third of the country’s total climate
warming. impact in one year. This is the equivalent of
778mn cubic metres of natural gas.
Tools for measuring impact of CH4 Meanwhile, the US oil and gas industry inten-
The disaster in the Baltic Sea offers research- tionally releases 300,000 tonnes, an amount that
ers better opportunities to measure the impact could perhaps be labelled a “Nord Stream,” every
of the leak without government or companies two and a half weeks, Bloomberg reported.
making it difficult to assess because of official What this means is that while the leaks in the
denials or difficulties in accessing the site. Baltic are attracting global attention as a one-off
In 2021, major emissions were confirmed disaster, similar methane emissions of equal size
in Texas and Central Asia, while Turkmenistan are happening every week across the world.
caused a third of large emission events from oil If the Nord Stream leaks are a climate
and gas seen by satellites. In 2022, a gas leak at catastrophe, then the world needs to know that
oil wells in Mexico produced 40,000 tonnes of similar climate catastrophes are happening all
methane the time.
These were detected and monitored by The methane escaping Nord Stream rep-
emerging satellite technology, which can dis- resents the amount of methane emitted every
cover, monitor and measure methane leaks that single day from oil, gas and coal energy systems
were previously unknown or were difficult to worldwide.
measure accurately. Common sources include On October 3, the Swedish prosecutor
gas pipelines, oil wells, fossil fuel processing closed off the site of the leaks, pending inves-
plants and landfills. tigation in to what it said was “suspected gross
For example, data from the TROPOMI sabotage”.
instrument on the European Sentinel 5P satellite, While investigations continue, and accu-
which is part of the Earth-observing constella- sations about who is responsible and what the
tion Copernicus, has detected methane at an oil effect on security in the Baltic Sea read might be,
and gas pipeline in Kazakhstan and at oil and gas the negative effects on the environment will out-
production facilities in Turkmenistan. weigh any geopolitical impact.
Tropomi's operations have detected prevent- The world must also learn that while the gas
able emissions from oil and gas fields in Turk- leaks can be regarded as isolated developments,
menistan. The installations should have built they have highlighted that catastrophes of simi-
hardware that would flare off or burn the meth- lar scale, reach and impact are happening on a
ane, thereby preventing it from leaking into the continual basis.
atmosphere. The world is experiencing “daily Nord
However, the satellite has detected that this Streams” as it continues to pump out emissions
is not happening, suggesting that flaring is not and use up fossil fuels. ™

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