Methane: in Italy a lot of it is wasted

The methane emissionsaccidentally released by ifossil gas and oil plantsare not visible to the naked eye, but can cause serious damage to the Planet and all climate. In Italy, these losses are generally very common production chain.

Gas leaks can occur for several reasons: one bad maintenance until sudden failuresbut they can be caused by risky practices such as the controlled release of so-called “useless” gas vent. These reasons not only cause the loss of a precious resource, but also release methane into the atmosphere, a gas 86 times more polluting thancarbon dioxide for the first 20 years.

From the observations of Legambienteconducted last October as part of the “It Smells Like Gas” information and awareness campaign, which required the use of infrared camerashave identified as many as 13 of the 25 plants checked Sicily And Basilicata which they recorded significant losses: 15 direct release cases and 68 losses for a total of 80 release points.

In particular, of the 13 plants where methane emissions occurred, 11 infrastructures are linked to the transport of fossil gas, of which 10 are managed by SNAM, 1 by Italgas and 1 by Greenstream BV (ENI and NOC).

The European regulation, on the other hand, proposes to intervene only in case of leaks of a certain size, wasting the rest of the methane gas. This is the only way to help prevent 42% of the direct emissions that take place in Italy today.

Legambiente