*

More than 120 mln metric tons emitted by sector in 2023

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Improved satellite technologies could help cut emissions

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Major US operations may be emitting 3% of supply as

methane

(Updates with details from Nature study on emissions details in

the United States, paragraphs 15, 17-18)

By Gloria Dickie

LONDON, March 13 (Reuters) - Methane emissions from the

energy sector remained near a record high in 2023 despite

commitments from the sector to plug leaking infrastructure in

a bid to combat climate change, a report by the International

Energy Agency said on Wednesday.

Methane emissions from human activities such as oil and

natural gas production, agriculture, and landfills are

short-lived in the atmosphere but many times more potent than

carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas. They have driven about a

third of the rise in global temperatures since the industrial

revolution.

Production and use of fossil fuels put more than 120 million

metric tons of methane into the atmosphere last year, a slight

rise over 2022, the IEA report said.

Large methane plumes from leaky fossil fuel infrastructure

also jumped by 50% in 2023 compared with 2022, the IEA report

said. One super-emitting event, detected by satellites, was a

well blowout in Kazakhstan that lasted more than 200 days.

"Emissions from fossil fuel operations remain unacceptably

high," said IEA chief energy economist Tim Gould.

Methane emissions have held around 130 million metric tons

level since 2019, the record high year when the IEA started its

Global Methane Tracker.

This is despite a commitment made by more than 150

countries since 2021 to reduce global methane emissions by at

least 30% from 2020 levels by the end of this decade.

Dozens of oil companies have also voluntarily committed to

reduce emissions.

But 2024 is likely to mark a "turning point", Gould said, as

new satellites help to improve monitoring and transparency

around methane leaks, allowing companies to quickly fix them.

SATELLITE TECHNOLOGY

Earlier this month, a new methane-detecting satellite backed

by Alphabet Inc's ( GOOG ) Google and the Environmental Defense

Fund went into orbit.

The European Space Agency and another satellite-based

tracker known as GHGSat already monitor methane emissions, but

the new MethaneSAT will provide greater detail and have a wider

field of view.

"2024 is going to be a watershed moment for action and

transparency on methane," said Christophe McGlade, head of

energy supply for the IEA.

With methane being the main component of natural gas, oil

and gas companies have an incentive to capture emissions to sell

as fuel.

An average of about 3% of oil and gas supplies at key U.S.

production sites may be escaping as methane, three times higher

than national government estimates, a study published on

Wednesday in the journal Nature found.

The U.S. is the largest national emitter of methane from oil

and gas operations, the IEA said.

Using 1 million aerial measurements gathered over several

years, scientists estimated oil and gas operations in six

regions - which include Texas, California and Colorado - may

have released 6.2 million tons annually of methane emissions,

the Nature study said.

Such methane leaks, therefore, could be costing oil and gas

companies $1.08 billion in market losses, it said.