Who Pays for the Leaks
Methane emissions from the energy sector remained at near record levels in 2025, the International Energy Agency concluded, saying that tackling the emissions could make billions of cubic metres of gas available to international markets as the war in the Middle East squeezes energy supplies. The report, the IEA said in its global methane tracker 2026, shows how the same energy system that leaks a potent greenhouse gas into the air also treats those losses as a supply problem to be managed for markets, not a crisis to be stopped at the source.
The IEA said that with methane emissions from the energy sector near record highs, tried-and-tested abatement measures could make 200bn cubic metres of natural gas available annually. It said that if select countries with spare existing gas export capacity and importing countries implemented readily accessible methane abatement measures across their gas systems, nearly 15 billion cubic metres of gas could very quickly be made available to markets. The language is bureaucratic, but the hierarchy is plain: countries with export capacity and importing countries are the ones positioned to act, while the damage from the leaks spreads far beyond boardrooms, ministries, and state companies.
What the Satellites Saw
The report was based on data from satellites and measurement campaigns and presented emissions findings for 2025 while exploring abatement measures and associated costs. In March, the Guardian reported on some of the world’s worst mega-leaks of the potent greenhouse gas in 2025. Satellite analysis by the Stop Methane Project at the University of California, Los Angeles found that mega-leaks occurred around the world, but the top 25 list was dominated by facilities in Turkmenistan.
The scale of methane leaks in the secretive and authoritarian state has previously been described as “mind-boggling.” Super-polluting plumes were also seen in the US, with the largest detected in 2025 occurring in Texas and leaking 5.5 tonnes of methane per hour, equivalent to running about a million fuel-guzzling four-wheel drives. Venezuela and Iran also had multiple mega-leaks from state-owned facilities. The pattern is not subtle: state and corporate systems keep the gas flowing, the atmosphere takes the hit, and ordinary people inherit the consequences.
The Machinery of “Management”
Over the longer term, the report said, such measures could deliver nearly 100bcm of gas to markets each year, while eliminating non-emergency gas flaring could unlock a further 100bcm. That is the logic of the apparatus in full view: first the leaks, then the cleanup framed as a market opportunity, with the same institutions still in charge of the pipes, the exports, and the damage.
The Stop Methane Project also analysed super-polluting plumes from landfill sites, where rotting organic waste can release huge volumes of methane when not well managed. The worst sites were across the world, from Turkey to Algeria and Malaysia to the US. Even the waste stream is folded into the same hierarchy of neglect, where “not well managed” means communities live with the fallout while the managers keep their distance.
Turkmen officials claimed in October that methane mega-leaks had been reduced. Muhammetberdi Byashiev, the head of the environmental protection department at the state company Türkmengaz, said, “Management has placed this under special control, and leaks are being repaired locally within two to three days,” citing collaboration with the UN, IEA and EU. However, the analysis showed that substantial mega-leaks continued.
The contradiction sits right there in the record: official claims of control, institutional collaboration, and repair timelines on one side; continued substantial mega-leaks on the other. The report’s own findings, drawn from satellites and measurement campaigns, leave the polished language of management looking thin against the scale of the emissions still pouring out.