A U.S. oil-producing region is leaking twice as much methane as once thought

oil storage tanks in Pecos, Texas

More than twice as much methane is leaking from an oil- and gas-producing region called the Permian Basin than previously thought, satellite data show. Large amounts of venting and flaring (shown here at Pecos, Texas, oil field storage tanks), or burning off of methane during production and transportation, may be to blame.

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Satellite data show that more than twice as much methane is leaking from a vast U.S.