Methane Emissions from the Fossil Fuel Industries of the Russian Federation

Abstract

Methane emissions are a major driver of human-induced climate change. Moreover, reduction of the rate of methane emissions is the fastest and least disruptive way to moderate global temperature rise over the next several decades. The production of fossil fuels - principally coal, oil, and natural gas – is an important source of anthropogenic methane. As one of the world’s most important producers of fossil fuels, the Russian Federation should play an important role in methane mitigation efforts. However, the Federation’s own estimates of methane emission intensity vary greatly from year to year, and are at variance with estimates of international data collection and research institutes. As a result of a recent series of large reductions in methane emission estimates, the self-reported methane emission intensity of the Russian Federation oil and gas industry is now less than comparable self reports of the United States. Satellite-based national-level estimates of Russian methane emissions are available, but the error bars are very large, and attributions to specific economic sectors are unreliable. Satellites are more reliable in characterizing plume events, but the measurements are insensitive and only account for a small fraction of total emissions. Coal mine methane emissions are easier to characterize but harder to remediate than emissions from oil and gas sources. In order for Russia to play a constructive role in climate change mitigation, better information about the state of emissions is required. Monitoring systems should be introduced, and common sense mitigation measures should be widely implemented.

Problems with Greenhouse Gas Life Cycle Analyses of U.S. LNG Exports and Locally Produced Coal

“…Even in the United States, where a tremendous amount of work has been done over the last ten years, there remain glaring discrepancies between o icial reports of methane emissions and careful and extensive measurements of them [Alvarez, 2018] [Duren, 2019] [Sherwin, 2024. Data gaps and uncertainties are immeasurably worse in nations such as the Russian Federation [Kleinberg, 2023a].…”