Media Contact:
Justin Wasser, justin@earthworks.org | Javi Garcia, javi@gasleaks.org
Despite clean claims, satellites and thermographers captured evidence of methane pollution at company sites
Today, Big Gas Polluters crowns Occidental Petroleum (Oxy) as the coalition’s October Polluter of the Month. The company claims it is “leading the way to a cleaner, more sustainable energy future.” However, satellite data published on Carbon Mapper’s data portal and video evidence captured by Earthworks’ methane hunters tell a different story.
Since July, satellites have recorded four methane emissions events from three different Occidental sites. Since the beginning of the year, on-the-ground thermographers documented five events in Colorado, resulting in three submitted complaints to the state’s regulatory agency.
- The first satellite-recorded pollution event occurred on July 9th, when a well pad near Midland, Texas, owned by Oxyrock, an Oxy subsidiary, appeared to dump methane at a rate of 293 kilograms per hour.
- A couple of weeks later, on July 23rd, the satellite captured a larger emissions event appearing to emanate from a different well pad owned by the same subsidiary.
- The following week, the satellite logged an even larger methane event emerging in the vicinity of Oxyrock wells and gas gathering lines near Garden City, Texas, which appeared to emit 746 kilograms of methane per hour. Two weeks later, the same site was captured releasing 490 kilograms of the superpollutant per hour.
Every hour of pollution at the rate of these combined events has roughly the same climate impact as the emissions of driving nearly 180 cars for an entire year.
“There has been an effort by big polluters to brush off responsibility for harm by diverting attention from corporate greed to individuals’ actions on fossil fuel consumption,” said Josh Eisenfeld, Earthworks Oil and Gas Research and Accountability Manager. “These pollution events from Occidental prove the real solution to the climate crisis is addressing the cause. Oil and gas companies are the cause, not individuals. And we will take every effort to hold them accountable for their climate pollution.”
Occidental Energy is one of the largest operators and oil producers in the Permian Basin, producing approximately 664,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. Since the start of 2023, the company and its subsidiaries have accumulated a total of $8,863,515 in penalties for 19 environmental-related offenses. In New Mexico, Oxy reported losing over 3,195,000 mcf of methane gas to venting or flaring since the start of 2025; the equivalent of the amount of gas consumed annually by 5,800 U.S. households.
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BigGasPolluters.org was launched to provide credible, evidence-based information on the claims and actions of the fossil fuel industry. Included in the effort is a database documenting reported methane emissions, commitments made to reduce methane, evidence of leakage events from Earthworks, and more information about the 100 largest oil and gas companies in the US. It has never been more critical to fact-check claims regarding climate pollution, and BigGasPolluters is here to monitor methane pollution, hold the industry accountable, and serve as a resource in these uncertain times.
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