As airborne methane surveys of oil and gas systems continue to discover large emissions that are missing from official estimates^1,2,3,4, the true scope of methane emissions from energy production has yet to be quantified. We integrate approximately one million aerial site measurements into regional emissions inventories for six regions in the USA, comprising 52% of onshore oil and 29% of gas production over 15 aerial campaigns. We construct complete emissions distributions for each, employing empirically grounded simulations to estimate small emissions. Total estimated emissions range from 0.75% (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.65%, 0.84%) of covered natural gas production in a high-productivity, gas-rich region to 9.63% (95% CI 9.04%, 10.39%) in a rapidly expanding, oil-focused region. The six-region weighted average is 2.95% (95% CI 2.79%, 3.14%), or roughly three times the national government inventory estimate⁵. Only 0.05–1.66% of well sites contribute the majority (50–79%) of well site emissions in 11 out of 15 surveys. Ancillary midstream facilities, including pipelines, contribute 18–57% of estimated regional emissions, similarly concentrated in a small number of point sources. Together, the emissions quantified here represent an annual loss of roughly US$1 billion in commercial gas value and a US$9.3 billion annual social cost⁶. Repeated, comprehensive, regional remote-sensing surveys offer a path to detect these low-frequency, high-consequence emissions for rapid mitigation, incorporation into official emissions inventories and a clear-eyed assessment of the most effective emission-finding technologies for a given region.

随着石油和天然气系统的空气甲烷调查不断发现官方估计中遗漏的大量排放^1,2,3,4，能源生产中甲烷排放的真实范围尚未量化。我们将大约 100 万个空中现场测量数据整合到美国 6 个地区的区域排放清单中，其中包括 15 次空中活动中 52% 的陆上石油产量和 29% 的天然气产量。我们为每个项目构建完整的排放分布，采用基于经验的模拟来估计小排放量。估计总排放量范围从高产天然气丰富地区所覆盖天然气产量的 0.75%（95% 置信区间 (CI) 0.65%、0.84%）到 9.63%（95% CI 9.04%、10.39%）一个快速扩张的、以石油为主的地区。六个地区的加权平均值为 2.95%（95% CI 2.79%、3.14%），大约是国家政府库存估计值的三倍⁵。在 15 项调查中的 11 项中，只有 0.05–1.66% 的井场贡献了井场排放的大部分（50–79%）。包括管道在内的中游辅助设施占估计区域排放量的 18-57%，同样集中在少数点源。此处量化的排放量合计意味着每年约 10 亿美元的商业天然气价值损失和 93 亿美元的年度社会成本⁶。重复、全面、区域遥感调查提供了一条检测这些低频、高后果排放的途径，以便快速缓解、纳入官方排放清单以及对特定区域最有效的排放查找技术进行清晰评估。