Environmental impacts of methane emissions from the oil and gas industry

Methane emissions from the oil and gas industry pose significant challenges to global climate change mitigation efforts. This review examines the environmental impacts of these emissions across different environmental compartments and critically evaluates the methodologies used to quantify these impacts. Our analysis reveals that methane emissions from oil and gas operations exert extensive environmental impacts spanning the atmosphere, water, and soil. In the atmosphere, methane intensifies greenhouse warming and alters ozone and water vapor chemistry; in aquatic and soil systems, it depletes oxygen, increases salinity, and disrupts microbial and nitrogen cycles, ultimately affecting ecosystem productivity. However, significant uncertainties remain in quantifying these impacts due to wide methodological variation among existing studies. These widespread environmental impacts highlight the need for comprehensive mitigation strategies targeting the primary sources of methane emissions throughout the oil and gas value chain: leakages, venting, and incomplete combustion. This review provides crucial insights for industry stakeholders to understand the full scope of environmental impacts of methane emissions, laying a scientific foundation for developing more effective methane emission control strategies. Methane from oil and gas operations damages climate, water, and soil through warming intensification, oxygen depletion, and microbial disruption. In this review, Hongfang Lu et al. provide crucial insights into the environmental impacts across atmospheric, aquatic, and soil systems to inform effective methane emission control strategies.