AMLO will present two proposals to reduce methane burning

Nestor Jimenez and Alonso Urrutia

Newspaper La Jornada
Friday June 17, 2022, p. 13

At the climate summit in which he will participate virtually today, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador will present two programs to reduce the burning of methane gas, he announced during his daily press conference.

He explained that this was one of the topics he discussed in the recent meeting with the head of the United States government for climate affairs, John Kerry.

We discussed this issue with Mr. Kerry and we are already working on two programs to reduce the burning of gas into the atmosphere, and it is part of what I am going to raise tomorrow (Friday) at the summitpointed out the head of the federal Executive.

Before concluding yesterday’s conference at the National Palace, and after noting that it is an issue that would take more time to fully explain, he stated that It is something that we are already dealing with, because it is the most irrational thing that can happen, to be buying gas and having to burn it here, with the pollution that it implies. So, we’re already on it, we’re working on it, we’re going to explain.

Asked about the report of the European Space Agency, which assured that in December Pemex released thousands of tons of methane gas into the atmosphere from an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico, the Tabascan said that it is a problem caused after the decision to inject wells with nitrogen to extract more crude oil in the Cantarell complex, which led to the exploitation irrationally of the deposit.

In 2004 with (Vicente) Fox, production reached 3 million 400 thousand barrels per day, because Cantarell was being over-exploited. So, with those interventions that they made to the wells, they contaminated them with nitrogen and with gas, and they had to burn more gas, they burned 600 million cubic feet of gas a day. A disaster, that affected a lothe added.

On Tuesday, after the meeting between López Obrador and Kerry, the Secretary of Foreign Relations, Marcelo Ebrard, indicated that the president will present a package of commitments to help in the fight against climate change.