据世界石油3月24日休斯敦报道，美国最大油田的甲烷排放量已经反弹，这是全球经济复苏过程中一个相当严峻的数据。
据非营利组织环境保护基金会(Environmental Defense Fund)的数据显示，去年3-4月，由于原油价格暴跌，石油生产商关闭了油井，并削减了新油井的数量，二叠纪盆地的污染程度下降了60%。但EDF援引其二叠纪甲烷分析项目(Permian methane Analysis Project)的数据称，随着钻探活动的增加，甲烷排放量现在恢复到了疫情前的水平。
在最初的20年里，甲烷在大气中的能量大约是二氧化碳的80倍，乔·拜登总统已经将消除这种气体的排放作为优先事项。但要做到这一点，就需要监管机构的监督和对美国页岩油气田管道的大量投资，因为在页岩油气田，生产商通常会燃烧或释放作为更有价值原油副产品开采的天然气，这样做通常成本较低。
大多数大型生产商已承诺，将停止常规的燃除或燃烧天然气，并采用更好的泄漏检测方法来清理作业。尽管如此，EDF发现甲烷排放是一个长期存在的问题，该公司对横跨西德克萨斯和新墨西哥东南部的二叠纪污染进行了大规模研究。
EDF在一份声明中表示，二叠纪的运营商生产的天然气历来超过了该地区设施（包括上游和中游设施）所能管理的量，使系统变得紧张，导致美国油气盆地排放量最高。EDF的科学家大卫里昂（davidlyon）表示，这个问题再也不能逃避了。
郝芬 译自 世界石油
原文如下：
Permian methane emissions return to pre-pandemic levels
One rather grim data point in the economic recovery from the pandemic: Methane emissions from America’s largest oil field have rebounded.
Pollution from the Permian basin dropped 60% from March to April last year as oil producers shut in wells and cut back on new ones due to tumbling crude prices, according to the non-profit Environmental Defense Fund. But methane emissions are now back at pre-pandemic levels as drilling ramps up, EDF said, citing data from its Permian Methane Analysis Project.
Methane is about 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide over its first two decades in the atmosphere, and President Joe Biden has made eliminating emissions of the gas a priority. But doing so requires regulatory oversight and large investments in pipelines across America’s shale fields, where it’s often cheaper for producers often burn or release gas extracted as a byproduct of more-valuable crude.
Most large producers have pledged to clean up their operations by ending routine flaring, or burning gas, and employ better leak detection methods. Despite this, EDF has found methane emissions to be a persistent problem as it conducts a large-scale study of pollution in the Permian, which stretches across West Texas and southeastern New Mexico.
“Operators in the Permian have historically produced more gas than the region’s facilities – including both upstream and midstream – can manage, straining the system and resulting in the highest emissions observed from any U.S. oil and gas basin,” EDF said in a statement. This “can no longer fly under the policy radar,” said EDF scientist David Lyon.
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