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Some of the world’s most powerful climate-warming emissions are coming from a small number of oil and gas sites, with Turkmenistan leading the list, according to new research.
Satellite data processed by Carbon Mapper and analysed by the Stop Methane Project (SPM) at the University of California, Los Angeles, shows that 15 of the world’s top 25 methane emission sites in 2025 from the oil and gas sector were in Turkmenistan.
Other sites across Iran and Venezuela also feature prominently, alongside locations in Texas in the United States and the Sindh region of Pakistan. According to SPM, more than 4,400 methane plumes were observed across 2,489 oil and gas sites globally in 2025.
The “top 25” sites are responsible for the most acute hourly emission rates recorded, ranging from 3.7 to 10.5 metric tonnes per hour, as per SPM.
The scale of these emissions has significant implications for global warming. The report noted that a source emitting around 5 tonnes of methane per hour has a warming impact comparable to one million large sport utility vehicles or a 500-megawatt coal-fired power plant.
Methane is a potent greenhouse gas. Although it remains in the atmosphere for a shorter period — about 12 years — than carbon dioxide, it traps far more heat in the near term, making it a key driver of short-term climate change, contributing 28 times more to global warming than carbon dioxide for every tonne.
It is the primary component of natural gas and a byproduct of fossil fuel exploration, is 86 times more efficient at trapping heat over a 20-year-period than carbon dioxide. Methane accounts for roughly 30 per cent of the rise in global temperatures since the Industrial Revolution, International Energy Agency (IEA). Atmospheric levels are increasing faster than those of other greenhouse gases, with concentrations now about two-and-a-half times higher than in the preindustrial era.
Experts say cutting methane emissions is one of the fastest ways to slow global warming. It is technically feasible to curb more than 70 per cent of emissions from oil and gas operations, as per IEA estimates from a 2023 report.
According to the IEA’s Global Methane Tracker 2025, the energy sector emitted about 145 million tonnes of methane in 2024, with oil and gas operations responsible for more than 80 million tonnes of that total.
Methane is emitted from a variety of sources, including natural wetlands; agriculture — particularly livestock and rice cultivation; waste systems such as landfills and wastewater; and fossil fuel extraction, including coal, oil, and gas. While the latest findings focus on oil and gas operations, earlier studies have highlighted methane emissions from landfill sites as well.
In Delhi, the Ghazipur landfill has been identified as one of the world’s major methane “super-emitter” sites, shows an earlier report. Data shows that the most severe leak event there occurred in April 2022, with emissions exceeding 400 tonnes per hour — equivalent to the pollution from around 68 million cars running at the same time.
Methane emissions from landfills occur when organic waste such as food, paper and garden material decomposes in the absence of oxygen. When such waste is not treated, landfill sites can become major sources of methane release.
