Message From the Editor

In recent years, the climate impact of methane — a potent greenhouse gas — has gotten increasing attention. It’s the main component of fracked gas and a byproduct of oil, and can leak into the atmosphere at various points in the production and transportation of these fossil fuels.

Fossil fuel companies and industry allies have long claimed that oil and gas from the Gulf of Mexico is “outperforming the rest of the world in methane emissions.” But there’s new evidence that offshore’s methane problem could be much bigger than reported.

Sara Sneath dug into a recent study that detected natural gas loss rates above 23 percent in the shallow waters of the Gulf. Far from land and oversight, it’s a wild west that makes it easy for companies to fudge numbers and avoid accountability from regulators who acknowledge they’ve fallen short.

Not only does this have consequences for the climate, but it could be making life even more dangerous for offshore oil and gas workers — vented methane gas can be sucked into the engines of helicopters landing on and departing from offshore platforms, and cause crashes.

Dig into the story now to learn more about this out of sight, out of mind problem.

Have a story tip or feedback? Get in touch: editor@desmog.com. Want to know what our UK team is up to? Sign up for our UK newsletter.

Thanks,
Brendan DeMelle
Executive Director

P.S. DeSmog has been following fossil fuel industry greenwashing since 2006. Can you donate $10 or $20 right now to support more of this essential work?

Image credit: BSEE, public domain

Growing Body of Research Suggests Offshore Oil’s Methane Pollution Is Underestimated

— By Sara Sneath (8 min. read) —

Flying 10,000 feet above the Gulf of Mexico, in a plane outfitted with infrared imaging equipment, researchers could see methane gas bubbling under water, likely from an undetected pipeline leak.

Over the course of several flights in 2021, they spotted frequent gas plumes from platforms, storage tanks, and pipelines offshore, leading the team to believe that the 151 platforms near the Louisiana coast had a much higher methane leak rate than what’s been measured for onshore oil and gas production.

Lawsuit Targets Shell’s Board of Directors Over Energy Transition Plans

— By Dana Drugmand (4 min. read) —

Shell’s board of directors officially has been served with a world-first lawsuit aiming to hold its corporate directors personally liable for alleged mismanagement of climate risk. The lawsuit, filed Thursday by UK-based environmental law organization ClientEarth, contends that Shell’s strategy to address climate change and manage the energy transition fails to align with the objectives of the Paris Agreement and leaves the company in a vulnerable position as society shifts away from fossil fuels.

Former Australian PM Tony Abbott Joins UK Climate Denial Group

— By Michaela Herrmann and Phoebe Cooke (2 min. read) —

Ex Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has joined the UK’s main climate denial group saying: “we need more science”.

Abbott announced he was “pleased” to join the board of the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF), which had “consistently injected a note of realism into the climate debate”.

Carbon Capture Project Is ‘Band-Aid’ to Greenwash $10 Billion LNG Plant, Locals Say

— By Matthew Green (7 min. read) —

As the Mexican Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, festivities drew to a close, Dina Nuñez called to order a meeting of women grassroots activists in a modest home in the heart of Port Isabel, Texas. Top of her agenda: how to stop a Houston-based oil and gas company from building a $10 billion project to export liquefied natural gas on a nearby stretch of coast.

For Nuñez and her friends, the fight against the scheme — known as Rio Grande LNG — is about protecting their community from air pollution; preserving shrimping and tourism; and defending habitats for pelicans, endangered ocelots, and aplomado falcons at the project site on unspoiled wetlands between Port Isabel and the larger city of Brownsville.

Canada’s New Oil And Gas Strategy: Green Promises at Home and More Exports Abroad

— By Geoff Dembicki (3 min. read) —

Top Canadian oil and gas companies are moving “aggressively” to cut their greenhouse gas emissions domestically so that they can sell more of their climate-warming products abroad.

That was the message delivered by the sector’s most powerful trade and lobby group at a recent resources industry conference in British Columbia, that achieving “net-zero” at home is crucial for opening up foreign markets.

From the Climate Disinformation Database: Tony Abbott

Tony Abbott was Prime Minister of Australia between 2013 and 2015. Abbott has historically opposed measures to combat climate change, advocating for the (ultimately successful) repeal of Australia’s carbon tax in 2014, introduced by the previous Labor government. In 2017, he gave a lecture entitled “Daring to Doubt” to the UK-based climate science denial group the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF). Abbott joined the GWPF’s board of trustees in February 2023, stating that the organisation has “consistently injected a note of realism into the climate debate.”
Read the full profile and browse other individuals and organizations in our Climate Disinformation Database and Koch Network Database.