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🇻🇪 Venezuela's Sources of CH₄ Emissions

Venezuela's Sources of CH4 Emissions

✨ Key Insights

Oil Discovery and Early Growth

The discovery of oil in Venezuela's Maracaibo Basin in 1914 marked a pivotal moment in the country's emissions history. This event initiated a significant increase in methane emissions, particularly from fugitive emissions associated with oil extraction. The subsequent decades saw a steady rise in emissions as oil production ramped up, with the enactment of the Hydrocarbons Law in 1943 further boosting output and emissions.

OPEC and Nationalization Impact

Venezuela's role as a founding member of OPEC in 1960 and the nationalization of its oil industry in 1976 were key drivers of increased methane emissions. These developments led to expanded oil production and refining activities, contributing to a notable rise in emissions. The creation of PDVSA, the state oil company, further consolidated control over oil production, intensifying emissions from the sector.

Economic Reforms and Recent Challenges

The economic reforms of 1989, known as the 'Oil Opening,' attracted foreign investment and spurred further increases in methane emissions. However, the 2002 PDVSA strike and the 2014 oil price collapse temporarily reduced emissions due to decreased production. More recently, U.S. sanctions in 2019 have significantly impacted Venezuela's oil industry, leading to a decline in emissions as production and exports have been curtailed.

Background

The chart shows a national breakdown by source of the yearly methane (CH4) emissions from human activities expressed as weight in megatonnes (Mt). In the scientific literature, these are referred to as anthropogenic emissions. Human-induced methane emissions increase atmospheric methane, which is warming the Earth. The sources of human methane emissions are

  • Livestock
  • Fugitive emissions from the fossil fuel industry
  • Crop production
  • Fossil fuel combustion
  • Waste management
  • Other processes

Methane's Global Warming Potential

Methane has a much higher Global Warming Potential (GWP) than CO2. However, the effect lasts only for a relatively brief period (9 years on average), compared to hundreds of years for CO2. A reduction in emissions can cause a rapid decline in its atmospheric levels and climate impact.

Livestock

Livestock emits methane that is produced in the animals' digestive system. Most methane is emitted from the mouth during rumination. A much smaller amount of methane is emitted from the manure. Depending on how the manure is managed, i.e., wet or dry, more methane is emitted. Wet management leads to higher methane emissions than dry management. However, dry management also emits nitrous oxide (N2O), which is another potent greenhouse gas.

Fugitive emissions from fossil fuel industry

Fugitive methane emissions are from the intentional and accidental release of methane, which happens during the extraction, storage, and transportation processes in the fossil fuel industry. Examples are methane leaks during oil and gas handling, storage, transport, incomplete combustion, and many more. Also, methane is deliberately ventilated from mines during the extraction of coal.


Methane is a primary part of “gas”, also called “natural gas” or “fossil gas”. Natural gas is used, for example, for heating and electricity generation, whereby it emits CO2 during the combustion process. However, when natural gas leaks (unburned) it contains a lot of fugitive methane emissions.

Waste

Waste from landfills and wastewater produces a lot of methane when biodegradable material breaks down without oxygen.

Crop production

Crop production emissions are largely from rice cultivation, which generates large amounts of methane during plant growth. These emissions are from flooded paddies, which create the swamp-like environment of rice fields. There are agricultural techniques to reduce emissions significantly, like periodic drainage and aeration. Rice is the main staple for about half the world's population, and its emissions are a significant part of total human methane emissions.

Fuel combustion

Fuel combustion emissions are mostly from the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels. As mentioned before, natural gas consists largely of methane, and when the combustion does not happen completely, methane enters the atmosphere.

Other

Other human-induced methane emissions include industrial processes and product uses.

Wikipedia: Anthropogenic Sources of Atmospheric Methane
IPCC: AR6, 5.2.2.2 Anthropogenic CH4 emissions

Units and Measures

CH4 emissions are expressed in the total weight in megatonnes per year. 1 Megatonne is equal to 1 million tonnes.

Wikipedia: Megatonne
Wikipedia: Global warming potential

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About the Data

The last available year in all the emission datasets is 2023. Methane emissions come from the PRIMAP-Hist dataset. It is a rich dataset that combines several published sources to create a historical emissions time series for various greenhouse gases.

The Key Insights paragraph was generated using a large language model (LLM) using a structured approach to improve the accuracy. This included separating the context generation from the interpretation and narrative.

Data Sources

PRIMAP-hist The PRIMAP-hist national historical emissions time series (1750-2023)
Update cycle: Every few monthsDelay: Less than 1 yearCredits: Gütschow, Johannes; Busch, Daniel; Pflüger, Mika (2024): The PRIMAP-hist national historical emissions time series (1750-2023) v2.6. Zenodo.