Spotlight on the Top 25 Plumes in '25: Oil and Gas Sector

The Top 25 in '25 Oil and Gas Sector Ranking includes sites in Turkmenistan, Venezuela, Iran, Pakistan, and the U.S.

Welcome to the UCLA Emmett Institute’s STOP Methane project, a user-friendly ranking of super-polluting methane emissions across multiple sectors.

This list shows the 25 sites in the oil and gas sector with the largest detected and quantified emissions rates worldwide, as seen by key satellite instruments so far in 2025.

These insights come from Carbon Mapper’s methane emissions data leveraging two space-based instruments: Planet Labs’ Tanager-1 satellite and NASA’s EMIT instrument on the International Space Station. The non-profit Carbon Mapper processes the raw data from these instruments to detect, quantify, and pinpoint methane plumes, publishing the results on its data portal. Using published Carbon Mapper data, we determined the oil and gas sector sources with the highest detected hourly emissions rates seen from Jan. 1, 2025, to today (using data posted on the portal by November 12).

The 2025 data show more than 3,100 methane plumes observed at more than 1,900 oil and gas sector sites, worldwide. These are sites in dozens of countries of all income levels and in all world regions. The sources on our “Top 25” list are responsible for the most acute hourly emission rates seen by these instruments globally – with emission rates ranging from 3.7 to 10 tons of methane per hour. Notably, the sources on this Top 25 list are concentrated in just a few countries, with the majority of the list consisting of oil and gas sites in Turkmenistan. Top 25 sites are also located in Venezuela, Iran, Pakistan, and the United States.

The sources presented here have been observed at least twice, and the emission rate reported for each site takes into account the number of times a plume was detected at that site. As the ability and coverage of space-based methane monitoring expands, further assessment of these sites and their emissions will become more robust. Still, the list presented here is a snapshot showing where the largest sources of oil & gas methane emissions are likely located globally, and highlights opportunities for near term mitigation.

Notes to understand and interpret this data:

• How important are these sources of emissions in global context? To illustrate how important these sources are, and what big opportunities they present for near-term reductions, consider that over a year, a source emitting 5 tons of methane per hour (in the middle of the pack of our “top 25” list) would contribute about as much to global warming as one million SUVs or one large (500 megawatt) coal-fired power plant.

• How did we calculate these emissions rates? We didn’t do the calculations. We are reporting calculations done by Carbon Mapper and included on their public data portal, making some judgment calls about what to include or exclude from our list as we explain below. Carbon Mapper gives source emission rates by averaging the emission rates from each time an instrument observed a source (including times, if any, when no emissions were observed). Carbon Mapper’s methodology for calculating emissions rate is described in more detail here.

• What do the two satellite instruments observe? Tanager specifically images key regions of the globe where there are known oil & gas production activities, returning to those areas on a reoccurring basis (e.g., every few months). EMIT observes broad spatial areas in between 50°S - 50°N, including many oil & gas fields, as part of its broad earth science mission.

• Why do our emissions rates look a little different than those reported on the Carbon Mapper site, e.g., the largest source is 10.0K on Carbon Mapper and 10 tons per hour on our ranking? We are reporting the same emission rates but are translating them into a different unit to make it simpler. One metric ton equals 1,000 kilograms. Because the Carbon Mapper portal has to provide consistent formatting for hundreds of sources whose emissions rates vary from very small to very large, it uses the smaller unit (kg/hr). Since the top 25 sources all have emissions rates in the tons range, we stated them as tons, to make it simpler and to avoid having to say “10.0 K Kg.” Our emission rate for any given Top 25 site may also diverge over time from Carbon Mapper’s number for that same site, as Carbon Mapper updates its database to include or to analyze additional observations of that site. Our emission rates reflect Carbon Mapper’s published data as of November 12, 2025.

• Does the list include every big emissions event the satellites saw? No. Because of differences in the satellites’ orbits, some of these sources were seen many times in 2025, others just a few times. To be careful, we only included sources that were observed at least twice. So there are a few oil and gas sector sources with extremely high emissions rates that appear on Carbon Mapper’s portal, but that we excluded from this list because they were observed only once.

• Where can I learn more about methane observation from satellites? To learn more about remote observation of methane and the opportunities and limitations presented by the new satellite data, see the Emmett Institute’s “Remote Sensing of Atmospheric Methane: A Primer for Policymakers on the Science of Methane Satellites.”

• Something on the list doesn’t look right. Think we’ve got something wrong? Do you know something about one of these sources that suggests there’s an error in Carbon Mapper’s observation and calculation or our compilation and interpretation? If so, please explain it to us here.