Methane emissions from human activities contribute to about one-third of global climate warming. The first step in mitigating fugitive methane is monitoring its emissions. This week, we will look at methods and regulations developed for fugitive methane emissions.
Rasoul Sorkhabi
Editor, Core Elements
The World’s Eye on Methane
Francesco Scatera/Shutterstock.com
The Oil & Gas Methane Partnership 2.0 (OGMP 2.0) is the “Gold Standard” for comprehensive and transparent measurement of fugitive methane.
OGMP methodology was initiated in 2014 by industry, government, and civil society.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) launched OGMP 2.0 as “a voluntary initiative to help companies reduce methane emissions in the oil and gas sector.”
OGMP 2.0 membership has increased from 53 in 2020 to 153 in 2025.
Membership includes 153 companies from 90 countries and many oil and gas companies. Together, these represent more than 42 percent of the world’s oil and gas production, more than 80 percent of LNG flows, and more than 10 percent of global gas storage capacity.
OGMP 2.0 emphasizes the call for 30 percent reduction of methane emissions by 2030.
IMEO has a database of 13,000 satellite-detected methane plumes. It has published more than 50 science papers.
IMEO publishes an annual report called An Eye on Methane. The 2025 report is the fifth in the series.
A case study of OGMP 2.0 from Italy: One study of the fugitive methane in Italy commissioned by a gas company following OGMP 2.0 was presented at the 2025 Offshore Technology Conference in May.
Drone-based methane measurements: A different study from Denmark published in the Journal of Environmental Management examines drone-based measurements of atmospheric methane.
By increasing the number of flights, the statistical uncertainty decreased from 46 percent for a single flight to 27 percent for triple flights. It pays to double and triple check!
The study also found that wind speed and direction were essential to methane measurements.
The atmospheric methane concentration was 1,927 parts per billion in November 2025—an increase of 13 percent since 1984 when the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration started its time-series measurements.
Methane is 80 times stronger than carbon dioxide in trapping heat during the first two decades of its presence in the atmosphere.
Methane's lifetime in the atmosphere is about 12 years, compared to the relatively unreactive carbon dioxide, which can persist for centuries. Nevertheless, methane reacts with ozone and breaks down to carbon dioxide and water.
AI/ML tools integrate with our interpretation software and upstream data, supporting consistent, iterative workflows from data preparation through analysis.
AAPG Division of Environmental Geosciences Secretary Fred Gyllenhamer has contributed information about the first-ever European Union regulation on reducing methane emissions within the fossil fuel sector. There is also some information on regulations that underlaid and paved the way for OGMP 2.0.
About the initiative:
EU/2024/1787 was entered into force on 5 August 2024.
The new rules focus on several challenges around detecting and quantifying emissions: Measurement, reporting, and verification. They also present stringent rules around finding and repairing leaks within the European Union.
Key Regulation Notes
In oil and gas:
Within the European Union, companies are required to monitor equipment for leaks.
If a leak is found, it must be repaired immediately, within 5–15 working days. It should then be monitored to ensure the repairs were successful.
The regulation also bans venting, except in exceptional or unavoidable circumstances for safety reasons.
It allows flaring only if re-injection, utilization onsite, or transport of the methane to a market are not technically feasible.
The rules around when and how each of these actions can be carried out are also more restrictive.
It also obligates countries in the European Union to map and reduce emissions from closed and abandoned oil and gas wells.
In coal mining:
Within the European Union, the regulation envisions a phase-out of methane venting and flaring within coal mining and processing.
The new regulation also requires countries in the European Union to map and establish mitigation plans in the case of abandoned coal mines and inactive oil and fossil gas wells.
The Global Methane Pledge:
The Global Methane Pledge was launched by the European Union Commission and the United States at COP26 in Glasgow in 2021.
159 countries have joined the pledge.
Other milestones:
The Methane Finance Sprint at COP28 held in the United Arab Emirates in 2023 mobilized €175 million for E.U. methane initiatives and more than $1 billion in total.
Data availability has also significantly improved with the full launch of the satellite-based Methane Alert and Response System (MARS) and new satellite launches planned by 2026. This system helps track super-emitter events and notify governments of their occurrence.
Why it matters: Methane emissions reductions can be cost-effective, or even cost-negative.
Captured methane can be sold as natural gas.
The International Energy Agency estimates that more than 196 billion cubic meters of gas that could have been supplied to global markets was lost through flaring, venting, and leaking worldwide in 2023 —enough to cover two thirds of the European Union annual gas consumption.
Go deeper:
EU 2024 Regulation supports the OGMP 2.0 framework. Details are on the European Union website.
The conference will be held 25–26 February 2026 at the Hyatt Regency in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Southern Methodist University researcher Alexander Brandt is scheduled to give a talk entitled “Fugitive Methane Emissions Modeling from Microannulus Failure in Horizontal Well Systems” on Day 1 of the conference.
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