No Wonder Trump Loves Venezuelan Oil - Its Decaying Infrastructure Leaks 13 Billion M3 Of Methane Each Year
Ed. - Just think of all the libtards it'll own when that leakage occurs under the flag of 'Murca!!!
Oil executives weighing a potential investment in Venezuelas fields may want to check out the view from space. Satellites have detected enormous amounts of methane billowing from the countrys abandoned oil rigs, rusty pipelines and other dilapidated energy infrastructure.
The emissions not only reflect potential lost revenue theyre also likely to give US oil majors pause about operating in Venezuela. That could leave smaller, less experienced companies and private equity firms to attempt to fulfill US President Donald Trumps plan to revive the nations heavy crude output after capturing President Nicolas Maduro.
Recurring emissions are a red flag to oil and gas operators, said Clayton Nash, director of strategic development at Tegre Corp., a Colorado-based engineering and design consultancy. Thats one way that youre going to know that youve got facilities that are not operated well.
Roughly 13 billion cubic meters of Venezuelas natural gas is flared, vented or leaked into the atmosphere every year, wasting about $1.4 billion of potential revenue, according to Capterio Ltd., a British company that helps to reduce such emissions. About a quarter of Venezuelas gas output is lost to the atmosphere, the highest rate in the world and nearly 10 times above the global average, according to a satellite analysis published last month in Nature Communications. All that methane is dangerous: The greenhouse gas is 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide at warming the planet over a 20-year period.
EDIT
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-01-09/venezuela-s-massive-methane-problem-revealed-in-satellite-images?srnd=phx-green