BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 26. Turkmenistan has
opportunities to expand cooperation on methane monitoring and
emissions reduction, GHGSat CEO Stephane Germain told Trend.
"Across our global partnerships, from North America to the
Middle East to Central Asia, we've found that the most impactful
methane reduction programs combine three things: frequent
monitoring, rapid data delivery, and deliberate systems to
translate data into field action," Germain said.
According to him, that combination turns emissions visibility
into emissions reduction.
"For Turkmenistan, I see a clear and exciting opportunity to
deepen exactly that kind of integrated approach. The country's
energy producers—Turkmengaz in particular—have already demonstrated
willingness to use digital and space technologies to drive
results," he noted.
Germain said the next step is establishing facility-level
monitoring programs that allow operators to respond to leaks
faster.
"The logical next step is institutionalizing the kind of
facility-level, site-specific monitoring programs that allow
operators to detect a leak and dispatch a repair crew within hours
rather than weeks," he said.
He added that GHGSat's satellite constellation can now revisit
specific sites daily.
"With GHGSat's constellation now capable of daily revisits to
specific sites, we can provide Turkmenistan's energy sector with
the granularity and speed it needs—not just to report progress to
international bodies, but to find and fix the leaks that cost the
country real revenue every day.
Methane that escapes into the atmosphere is methane that could
have been monetized. That economic argument resonates strongly with
energy producers everywhere, and I believe it resonates in Ashgabat
too," Germain said.
For reference, GHGSat is a Canadian emissions-monitoring company
founded in 2011 and headquartered in Montreal. The company operates
one of the world's largest commercial satellite constellations
dedicated to greenhouse gas monitoring. GHGSat's satellites monitor
methane emissions in more than 85 countries and can detect
emissions from individual industrial facilities, including oil and
gas sites, coal mines and landfills.
The company provides emissions data to governments, regulators,
international organizations and major energy companies, while its
technology has been used in collaborations with organizations such
as the UN, the International Methane Emissions Observatory (IMEO),
ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, Total Energies, and Saudi Aramco.
GHGSat has expanded its satellite fleet to 14 spacecraft, enabling
near-daily monitoring of methane emissions worldwide.
