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Mexico's Pemex delayed repairs regardless of vast methane leaks: sources and documents

Mexican state energy company Pemex delayed urgent repairs and upkeep at an crucial overseas platform for months, leading to methane gushing into the environment, according to internal documents and 3 sources acquainted with the facilities.

Methane, the primary part of gas, is a lot more powerful motorist of worldwide warming in the short-term than carbon dioxide due to the fact that it traps more heat in the environment, tonne for tonne.

New data from the United Nations Environment Program's. ( UNEP) Global Methane Emissions Observatory showed that. the problematic Pemex platform in the Gulf of Mexico leaked. methane as recently as December 24.

formerly exposed that the Zaap-C platform, among. the most important in the Gulf of Mexico, had dripped on at least. 25 days in between January and November 2023.

The 5 internal documents, seen , reveal for the. very first time that Pemex has been aware of parts at the. platform that were beyond repair work and several other deficiencies. related to the facilities since a minimum of June.

Pemex requires to set up two new turbo compressors at the. platform, different pipelines, connecting facilities and a. firewall software for security reasons, an assessment by Pemex from January. programs. The turbo compressors help compress the gas so it can be. reinjected into the field.

When, 3 sources who work on the facilities stated that. crucial elements fail, the platform's flare goes off and methane. is launched into the atmosphere. It is not rerouted to another. platform nor reinjected into the field, they said.

A flare is indicated to burn off the methane part of gas. that comes to the surface area during oil expedition and production.

The Pemex files consist of internal proposals for modifications,. infrastructure plans and extracts from a database detailing the. composition of gas. None have previously been reported.

Pemex, which is responsible for the facilities, has in. the past denied these big methane leakages at the platform. It. did not respond to duplicated requests for remark.

The president's office, the energy ministry, the oil. regulator and the environmental regulator, likewise did not react.

Engineers have on several celebrations urged Pemex to change. the defective parts and make other urgent repair work, the three. sources stated, adding that other parts of the Gulf of Mexico. infrastructure also lack maintenance.

The sources - all engineers - said the defective facilities. remains in place, and the January examination still notes it as. needing repairs and replacements, more than six months after the. issues were flagged in the reports seen .

It would take about three months to perform the works,. among the sources stated, adding that it would likewise suggest halting. a minimum of some part of production.

MEXICO NOTIFIED OF LEAKS

Last month, exposed that a U.N. company had notified. Mexico of repeated methane leakages from the platform.

Scientists around the globe have in recent years joined the. dots on flares and methane emissions, showing that when a. flare is out - and production is not halted - large volumes of. methane are usually launched into the atmosphere.

This is something for which we have actually tape-recorded proof in. various parts of the world, stated Daniel Zavala, a senior. scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund who has extensively. investigated emissions in Mexico.

It was easy for operators to state: if you can not see burning. occurring, it means that no gas is coming out, Zavala said. Up until recently, we didn't have a method to inspect.

When the flare works as meant, Zaap-C flares some 300. million cubic feet of gas each day, among the sources stated.

evaluated internal Pemex data that shows that 17% of. this gas is pure methane and 73% of which is nitrogen, a. harmless gas that abounds in the environment. The rest is. made up of other gases and pollutants.

Zavala said that with such vast volumes of gas, even the. relatively low percentage of methane was bothersome for both. the environment and the possible safety of workers.

Pemex employs some 300 workers on the Zaap-C platform alone,. and remaining methane could cause explosions and fires.

Facilities to burn methane from gas that comes to. the surface area as part of oil production was at first put in location. as a commercial safety measure, long before the environmental. impact of the greenhouse gas was commonly understood.

In the Gulf of Mexico, Pemex has long either burnt off the. gas or reinjected it into the fields - a method to recuperate more oil. and make up for lower production as it is being diminished.

Pemex has hesitated to make substantial financial investments in. facilities associating with old fields, said 3 other sources. working at the business's expedition and production arm and one. source at the regulator.

Halting production at the world's most indebted energy. business would be troublesome, the sources stated, due to the fact that it would. affect output and lead Pemex to miss out on enthusiastic targets set by. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who seeks to make the. country self-dependent in energy.

(source: Reuters)