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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

Blowout! Satellites reveal one of the largest methane leaks on record

An oil well in Kazakhstan dumped more than 100,000 tonnes of the potent greenhouse gas into the atmosphere.
Two workers wearing hard hats perform maintenance on an oil pumping unit painted in blue, red and yellow colours

An oil pump in Kazakhstan. A leak from one of the nation’s oil wells billowed methane for more than six months. Credit: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg/Getty

An oil-well blowout in Kazakhstan spouted more methane than any other accidental leak ever recorded, according to satellite observations1.

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Nature 631, 713 (2024)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-02267-y

References

  1. Guanter, L. et al. Environ. Sci. Technol. Lett. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.estlett.4c00399 (2024).

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