Looking for natural gas leaks with Theo

Théophile Humann Guilleminot grabs his 100,000 euro case, a special high-tech camera: “Today we are looking for methane emissions in Croatia. We analyze oil and natural gas plants.” The thermal imaging technician Theo works for the international climate protection organization CATF and has already carried out 500 “methane hunting” from Romania to Spain. He always found what he was looking for!

Methane is responsible for a third of global warming. In a 20-year comparison, methane is even 80 times more harmful to the climate than CO2. Agriculture, poorly sealed landfill locations and the use of fossil fuels are the most important artificial sources.

Compared to pre -industrial values, the methane content in the atmosphere has increased by 260 percent. Since 2000, as much methane has been added every year that the climate damage is as large as that caused by 350 million cars. If nothing changes, the earth could become up to four degrees Celsius until the end of the century.

Methane escapes particularly during extraction, processing, transport, distribution and storage of natural gas. The climate family is released into the air by boreholes and flacking as well as from leaky pipelines and compressor stations.

Together with 159 partner countries, the European Union has reduced by a third worldwide between 2020 and 2030. The EU Metension regulation, which has been in force since the summer of 2024, should help:

• Companies have to better monitor their systems.

• All methane emissions must be recorded carefully.

• Routine blackers are prohibited.

• Lecks must be repaired immediately.

Theo has set up his special camera in front of a processing plant in Velika Ludina directly on the edge of the village: “I'm afraid that we will discover leaks in the warehouse tanks, they look dilapidated.”

Instead of feeding methane back into the system, some companies prefer to invest in new oil and gas fields, which brings higher profits at short notice. The problem often lies with subcontractors – or there is a lack of technical knowledge and good will.

Workers who wear gas masks move between the valve wheels and tanks. Théophile looks at his detector: “A leak! This is insane! That is intended, you know that you are release this gas.” One of the tanks of tank was opened, “they want to have the oil breathed,” explains the Catf expert Theo, the system is “ventilated”, the methane is released into the ambient air. “The new methane regulation in Europe says that this practice is prohibited,” emphasizes Theo.

A few kilometers further, in the middle of the small town of Dugo Selo, we discover a flame, a kind of “waste product” of oil extraction and processing. Suddenly we hear a hiss and the flame is now several meters high. “This practice of flickering is prohibited in the EU,” says Theo. “We have had the EU Metension regulation since August 2024, and the burning of gas in this way is not legal.”

In Paris I meet the methane experts from the international energy agency Tomás de Oliveira Bredariol. How can methane emissions be prevented to be hidden? “There are satellite data. We also need measurements on the ground,” says de Oliveira. Independent supervisory authorities should be involved here.

But are not completely insufficiently recorded the methane emissions? De Oliveira agrees: “If we combine all officially registered emissions, we reach 40 million tons of methane emissions from the oil and gas sector. Our own IEA estimate is 80 million tons of methane, which is twice as much!”

And why is methane so dangerous? De Olivira: “Methan is responsible for around 30 percent of global warming. Methane emissions from fossil fuels are expected to fall by 25 % by 2030. This is far from what we need, namely a reduction of 75 percent.”