© Supplied by MethaneSAT A satellite launched into orbit to monitor methane emissions in oil and gas producing regions has lost contact with its mission control team.
Developed by the US-based Environmental Defence Fund (EDF), the MethaneSAT launched into space in March 2024 aboard a SpaceX Transporter-10 rocket.
Billed as “CCTV for the planet”, MethaneSAT aimed to monitor emissions of the greenhouse gas from at least 80% of the world’s oil and gas production.
But in a statement, the MethaneSAT organisation said its mission operations team lost contact with the satellite on Friday 20 June.
“After pursuing all options to restore communications, we learned this morning that the satellite has lost power, and that it is likely not recoverable,” the organisation said.
“While this is difficult news, it is not the end of the overall MethaneSAT effort, or of our work to slash methane emissions.”
MethaneSAT said the 15 month operation had been a “remarkable success”, with the advanced spectrometers developed for the project exceeding “all expectations”.
The organisation said its engineering team will conduct an investigation into the loss of communication with the satellite and continue to share its scientific findings from the mission.
“EDF and MethaneSAT remain firmly committed to our core purpose of turning data into action to protect the climate, including reducing methane emissions from the global oil and gas industry,” the MethaneSAT organisation said.
Global methane monitoring
Following its launch last year, MethaneSAT said the satellite would enable companies, regulators, investors and ordinary citizens to track emissions by providing publicly available, free, near-real time access to the data collected.
The project sought to both “motivate and enable” the global oil and gas sector to slash methane emissions by 45% by 2025, and 70% by 2030.
Global oil and gas operations account for a significant share of methane emissions caused by human activity.
© Supplied by MethaneSATWhile methane does not linger in the atmosphere for as long as carbon dioxide, it is more potent, with more than 80 times the warming power in the first 20 years.
The MethaneSAT project came after previous research organised by EDF revealed methane emissions from the US oil and gas sector were 60% higher than estimates from American environmental regulators.
Alongside the EDF, MethaneSAT backers included the New Zealand Space Agency, BAE Systems, Google and Amazon founder Jeff Bezoz’s Bezos Earth Fund.
MethaneSAT achievements
During its time in space, MethaneSAT monitored oil and gas production in the US, Middle East, China and Central Asia and uploaded the emissions data to its website.
The project revealed methane emissions from the US oil and gas sector were over four times higher than estimates from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Researchers also found smaller and dispersed sources accounted for the majority of US oil and gas methane emissions, as well as finding previously undetectable emissions sources.
MethaneSAT did not analyse emissions from the North Sea, but operators there are still aiming to reduce their methane output.
In 2021, North Sea oil and gas operators launched a plan to slash methane emissions as part of the £16 billion North Sea Transition Deal.
Under the action plan, operators committed to cut their methane emissions by 50% by 2030 against a 2018 baseline.
North Sea firms are also aiming to stop routine flaring by 2030 following a similar move in Norway, in line with the World Bank zero flaring initiative.
According to a 2024 report by the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA), the UK upstream oil and gas industry reduced its methane emissions by 29% between 2020 and 2022.
