by Jerry Redfern for Capital and Main
A new report by Gas Leaks Project and Earthworks tallied 166 major methane leaks at 121 New Mexico oil and gas facilities between January 1, 2025, and April 30, 2026. According to the report, few of the leaks appear to have been reported to the state as required by New Mexico rules and operator permits.
The leaks were recorded by Carbon Mapper’s Tanager-1 methane detection satellite, which recorded 50 images of New Mexico’s portion of the Permian Basin in the January-April timeframe. Each image shows a near-instantaneous view of the Earth’s surface measuring approximately 77 by 15 miles. Gas Leaks Project and Earthworks tied the emissions to specific oil and gas facilities.
Andrew Forkes-Gudmundson, senior manager for state policy at the environmental group Earthworks, said the report cannot answer why the leaks happened, and “The only people that can do that are the operators.” Energy Transfer and Targa Resources, the two companies with the most entries on the report, did not respond to questions from Capital & Main. A spokesperson for EOG Resources, which had the second-largest single recorded incident, said, “I don’t anticipate we will contribute to the story.”
Forkes-Gudmundson said that added together, the images reflect “a decimal-point percentage” of the total 15-month study period and do not reflect all of the methane leaking events that likely occurred in that time.
For years, Forkes-Gudmundson has documented oil and gas leaks across New Mexico. Even so, he was surprised by the number and size of leaks found. “I remember vividly the first time I read a draft of the paper being like, ‘Holy shit, is it really that bad?’” he said.
All of the identified leaks with complete emission data appear to qualify as highly polluting “super emitter” events under the U.S. EPA’s Methane Super Emitter Program, a Biden-era program that EPA Director Lee Zeldin promised to cancel at a meeting of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association in Santa Fe earlier this month.
Methane is a climate-warming greenhouse gas that is 80 times more effective at trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. Groups such as the International Energy Agency have said that reducing methane emissions from the oil and gas industry could be an “enormous” avenue for cutting greenhouse emissions overall, and that 45% of those emissions could be avoided “at no net cost.”
James Kenney, secretary of the New Mexico Environment Department, said the department hadn’t seen the report, but that it already uses Carbon Mapper satellite data “to target companies for compliance investigation.”
Even so, “The severity of methane leaks calls into question the industry’s commitment to voluntarily reach their climate goals,” he continued, saying that the apparent infractions “certainly necessitate [the New Mexico Environment Department] pursuing enforceable rules related to methane super-emitters.”
New Mexico state rules have banned regular venting and flaring at oil and gas facilities since 2022. Companies are required to report all venting and flaring to the New Mexico Oil Conservation Division, making it the state’s primary methane regulator. “[The Oil Conservation Division] reviews validated third-party emissions data, including Carbon Mapper observations, as supplemental information in its compliance activities,” said Sidney Hill, public information officer at the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department. “[The division] compares relevant observations with operator-reported information and other available records to determine whether additional review is warranted.”
Larger industrial facilities — like most of those identified in the report — also operate under permits issued by the state’s Environment Department. Those permits limit the amounts of other chemicals that are also present in methane leaks. Companies must file reports whenever they exceed permit limits.
The Environment Department’s governing board is mulling rules that could match the threatened federal super-emitter rule. If passed, they would give the state the authority to go after companies with major methane leaks if the EPA doesn’t. Kenney said the proposed rules “will ensure methane emissions are addressed under all state authorities.”
In addition, the new rules would create a third-party reporting program whereby groups could directly notify companies with facilities within 50 meters of a super-emitter event, rather than going through the Environment Department.
Some of the companies in the Gas Leaks Project and Earthworks report have previously been the subject of enforcement actions from either the Oil Conservation Division or the Environment Department. Kenney said that if the newly reported plumes violated previous settlements, “The enforcement response would escalate with greater civil penalties and injunctive relief than previously sought.”
In the five and a half months following the end of the Gas Leaks Project and Earthworks report period, Carbon Mapper’s satellite has spotted another 84 methane plumes from 73 sources.
Copyright 2026 Capital & Main.
Editor’s note: An earlier story version said the report showed 11 leaks had been reported to the state. Report author Geoff Bromaghim of Gas Leaks Project wrote that while “that may be the case, we think that’s ultimately a question for state regulators to assess.”
This story was updated to reflect comments from the Oil Conservation Division received after the article published.