Methane emissions intensity mapping from space reveals outsized emissions impact from marginal oil and gas production in the U.S.

<jats:p>Methane emissions reduction from the oil/gas sector, the largest industrial methane source, is a widely-recognized effective strategy for slowing the rate of climate warming. There are over 600,000 well-pads in the U.S.; one-fifth produce most of the economic value, while the remainder produce limited oil/gas. We use high-resolution MethaneSAT satellite data covering &amp;gt;80% of US onshore production to determine methane emissions across individual well-pad production cohorts, bridging a knowledge gap between what point-source and global-mapping satellites provide. The analysis reveals outsized methane emissions from low-producing well-pads (&amp;lt;15 boe/day), that account for only 6% of national production but more than half of well-pad methane emissions and ~40% of total oil/gas supply-chain emissions. The mean emissions intensity from low-producing well-pads is over tenfold compared to higher-producing well-pads, revealed by the spatially explicit satellite-based methane emissions intensity mapping. These low-producing well-pads represent a major methane mitigation opportunity for the U.S. oil/gas sector.</jats:p>