Methane Emissions in Argentina

Redpossum

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To be clear, I'm neither a climate change denier nor an eco-warrior. My views lie somewhere in the middle. Moreover, this thread isn't about any of that; I'm not going to talk about effects or who's to blame or any of that political tripe. I just want to share with you all some of what I just learned about methane emissions in Argentina, and ask if some of you can help me figure out what's happening.

Where it's coming from, in the literal sense of geo-location, is fairly easy. What it's coming from is another matter, and that's the part I'm hoping for some help with.
So, it began with this YT video -
At 12:32 there is an intriguing map of methane emissions worldwide. To see Argentina in more detail, I used screen snip.

methane argentina.png
Yes, its grainy and pixellated, because I zoomed in quite a bit. For comparison, I offer this map-
You may want to r-click on that link and choose "open in new tab"

So, the topmost of the 4 purple splotches, (the dark purple represents the highest levels of methane emissions), is clearly CABA; the notch in the coast is unmistakable. The southernmost one is odd. It seems to be the Rio Gallegos - Punta Arenas area. Let me know what you think. The one just north of that is centered on Commodoro Rivadavia. There's no mistaking that round bay and the protruding "shelf" just south of it.

The last one is tricky. You can see a small orange dot on the coast that is clearly Bahia Blanca, straight SW of CABA, and the last purple splotch is straight east of there. It's large and diffuse, and seems to me centered around the 4-corners area just north of Neuquén.

OK, now the part with which I'm asking for your help. What happens in those places? CABA is easy to explain. I suspect that the two in the middle are related to petroleum extraction. But the southern one puzzles me entirely. What do you think?

Please, please, please can we avoid politics in this thread? Can we not have the usual rants against Peronism, indictments of Argentina's inadequacy, etc etc? I'd just like to talk about what you think are the sources of these emissions. Please.
 
Conjecture:

Vaca Muerta, near Neuquen, where the petrol industry is.

Southernmost would be the famous "assembled in Tierra del Fuego" factories.
 
the big one in the middle is definitely vaca muerta. i think there is also a refinery both in comodoro and bahia blanca and perhaps one of the import/export terminals, we've hired many in industry come from working in the comodoro area. i agree the southernmost one is attributed to other factories/industry
 
CABA the very frequent use of GNC powered cars that are very obviously pissing put gas either from incomplete combustion or leaks in their systems.

Also the gas distribution network is falling to bits you can very often smell gas when walking around.

Comodoro is the original petroleum producing area of Argentina.

There are offshore gas fields in Tierra del Fuego.

Other red spot is Neuquén.
 
What about the cows? I understand that one of the biggest drivers of methane emission is cow (and pig) farming. I saw a ranking several weeks ago putting Argentina, maybe surprisingly, had one of the lower per capita methane emissions.

Wouldn't refineries at least flare off methane, rather than just vent it to the atmosphere?
 
refineries do flare in most cases, but you also have fugitive emissions and other vent sources. flaring is also not 100% efficient. some units are old and may not even be connected to a flare because it wasn't designed that way decades ago.

there are many sources of emissions in a refinery, as well as within the upstream sector.
 
This looks like the statistic I (mis) remembered, it's not per capita. It shows Argentina and Australia emitting about the same amount of methane: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1281764/global-methane-emissions-by-leading-country/

And the Buenos Aires hotspot is explained here (paywalled, but you only need the first paragraph or so): https://www.newscientist.com/articl...methane-emissions-may-come-from-one-landfill/ It's not the GNC taxis or poorly maintained infrastructure after all.

And you'd never guess who's responsible 🤣 I'll just leave this here without further comment: https://www.tiempoar.com.ar/informa...egocio-de-la-basura-en-el-complejo-norte-iii/ Now I know why it always smells bad leaving Buenos Aires on Ruta 9 around Don Torcuato.
 
refineries
This looks like the statistic I (mis) remembered, it's not per capita. It shows Argentina and Australia emitting about the same amount of methane: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1281764/global-methane-emissions-by-leading-country/

And the Buenos Aires hotspot is explained here (paywalled, but you only need the first paragraph or so): https://www.newscientist.com/articl...methane-emissions-may-come-from-one-landfill/ It's not the GNC taxis or poorly maintained infrastructure after all.

And you'd never guess who's responsible 🤣 I'll just leave this here without further comment: https://www.tiempoar.com.ar/informa...egocio-de-la-basura-en-el-complejo-norte-iii/ Now I know why it always smells bad leaving Buenos Aires on Ruta 9 around Don Torcuato.
stand corrected!
 
I do thank you all for your contributions. I thank you especially for keeping it civil and non-political, something that's not easy to do in this election season,

This was an interesting exercise. As I suspected, we do have within this community the knowledge needed to answer the questions.
 
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