The amount natural gas flared by Mexico’s state oil producer Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) has increased by more than 152% in the past four years, from an average of 178 MMcf/d in 2018 to 449 MMcf/d in 2022, according to company figures. 

As a result, Mexico in 2022 flared the seventh-largest volume of gas in the world, according to the World Bank. Mexico also was the planet’s 10th-largest methane emitter in 2021, according to the International Energy Agency. 

Despite government pledges and commitments to international bodies to decrease natural gas flaring and methane emissions, Pemex is unlikely to achieve significant reductions in the short term, wrote Columbia University research scholar Adrián Duhalt in a report earlier this month. Duhalt is with the Center on Global...