FSUOGM: One of worst-ever methane leaks seen in Kazakhstan in 2023

One of the worst methane leaks that has ever been detected occurred at a remote well in Kazakhstan last year, analysis shared with BBC Verify last week showed.

The revelation comes two months after Kazakhstan joined a global agreement to combat emissions of methane, the greenhouse gas (GHG) that is the second-largest contributor to global warming after CO2. 

It is estimated that 127,000 tonnes of methane escaped into the atmosphere, beginning in June 2023, when a blowout at a well in the Mangistau region of south-west Kazakhstan caused a fire that continued for more than six months, according to the BBC. The owner of the well, Buzachi Neft, had denied that a “substantial amount” of methane leaked.

"The magnitude and the duration of the leak is frankly unusual," Manfredi Caltagirone, head of the UN's International Methane Emissions Observatory, told the BBC. "It is extremely big."

The methane leak was first picked up by French geoanalytics firm Kayrros, whose analysis has since been verified by the Netherlands Institute for Space Research and the Polytechnic University of Valencia in Spain.

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