Pemex’s methane emissions draw fire

The head of Mexico’s senate has taken aim at the methane emissions of state oil company Pemex.

Laura Itzel Castillo, a member of President Claudia Sheinbaum’s Morena coalition, said Mexico needs to cut its methane emissions by 30–40% by 2030 to comply with its international climate change commitments.

Pemex aims to reduce methane emissions by 30% by 2030, from a 2020 baseline. It is one of the few major oil companies that has not joined the UN’s Oil and Gas Methane Partnership 2.0 (OGMP 2.0), whose members aim to reduce emissions by 60–75% by 2030 from 2015 levels.

Mexico is the world’s 10th-largest producer of methane, Itzel Castillo said at an Oct 9 meeting of a Latin American parliamentary organization focused on reducing methane emissions.

Mexico must improve monitoring across the energy industry, from the extraction of hydrocarbons to their transportation, storage and distribution, she said.

To reduce emissions, the country will need to adopt technologies and develop “appropriate policies" for the sectors which generate most emissions, including the oil and gas sector.

Flaring and venting of natural gas by oil companies are the main contributors to methane emissions, according to the senator.

Pemex

Pemex’s flaring volumes have surged this year. In 2Q25, the company flared 391 million cubic feet per day (Mf³/d) of natural gas, up 37% from 285Mf³/d in 2Q24. Methane emissions reached 211,000t, a 42.5% increase. Pemex attributed the rise mainly to equipment failure at a gas processing plant.

In April, Pemex signed a letter of commitment to the World Bank's Global Flaring and Methane Reduction partnership (GFMR).

In August, Pemex CEO Víctor Rodríguez Padilla said the debt-laden company would invest over US$2bn to eliminate routine flaring by 2030.

(The original version of this content was written in English)