Latin America’s Methane Moment

How regulation, technology and market pressure are reshaping methane management across the region.

Posted on September 14, 2026

Methane has moved from a niche sustainability topic to one of the energy industry’s biggest operational priorities. Regulators are writing new rules, buyers are demanding transparency, and satellites are making emissions visible in near real time. Methane traps far more heat than CO2 over a 20-year horizon, and much of it can be captured and sold rather than lost, making it both a climate priority and a commercial one for Latin America’s producers. Across the region, the pace of change varies. But look at Argentina, and you can see where the rest of the region is heading. 

Argentina Is Setting the Pace 

In January 2025, the UN’s Methane Alert and Response System (MARS) detected a methane plume at an Argentine oil well from orbit. The operator traced and resolved it within days, one of MARS’s first verified mitigation successes worldwide, and a sign that emissions once invisible to regulators can now be caught, with the expectation that operators fix them fast. 

Much of this shift is being shaped by OGMP 2.0, the industry’s leading methane reporting framework. It grades operators from desk-based estimates up to fully reconciled, site-level measurement, and it’s increasingly the benchmark regulators design around. 

Neuquén has taken that further. Through Resolución 258/2025 and Disposición N.º 1/26, the province home to the Vaca Muerta shale play has introduced progressively more rigorous requirements for quantifying, reporting and verifying emissions. For a practical breakdown of the regulation, read Disposición Nº 1/26 at a Glance: What Neuquén Operators Need to Know Tier 1 operators must report using a standardized format and move towards more granular quantification and independent verification, building towards a consolidated inventory by 2027. That’s the same year the EU Methane Regulation begins requiring MRV equivalence from foreign gas suppliers, so operators responding to Neuquén’s rules are also building capabilities relevant to future export-market requirements.

Methane intensity by country and source, 2025 (kt CH4/BOE). Source: IEA Global Methane Tracker 2026.

A Regional Transition, at Different Speeds 

Argentina isn’t acting alone. Mexico and Colombia already have binding methane-related requirements in place, Brazil is building toward its own framework, and Venezuela, despite the region’s highest venting and flaring intensity, represents one of its largest greenfield opportunities to build measurement infrastructure from scratch. 

The timing matters: several of South America’s major producing regions are entering a period of significant upstream investment and export growth, so methane performance is becoming as important for financial opportunities and market access as it is for compliance. 

Venting dominates the regional methane profile, accounting for roughly 62% of baseline emissions across the nine producers analyzed, well ahead of fugitive emissions (19%), flaring (16%) and incomplete combustion (3%). But the regional average masks real differences: Venezuela’s intensity is more than three times Argentina’s despite lower production, driven by venting and flaring together, while Brazil and Guyana sit well below average. The implication is straightforward: there’s no single mitigation strategy for the region, the highest-value fix differs by country and by asset. 

Questions Every Operator Should Be Asking 

Whether you’re operating in Neuquén today or elsewhere in the region, these are worth answering honestly: 

• Do you know where your largest methane emissions are coming from? 
• Can you quantify them using measurement-based methods? • Where does your reporting sit against frameworks such as OGMP 2.0? 
• Would your emissions data withstand independent, third-party verification? 
• Are you prepared for emerging regulatory and buyer requirements? 

For a growing number of operators, these are becoming operational questions, not future planning exercises. 

If those questions expose gaps in your data, methodologies or reporting processes, explore them in more detail in Are You Ready for Neuquén’s First Mandatory Emissions Report?

 What Tackling Methane Actually Looks Like 

None of this requires a technological breakthrough. McKinsey estimates existing technologies can address 80– 90% of upstream oil and gas emissions; the IEA puts more than 75% of oil and gas methane emissions as reducible using well-known measures already on the market, and much of it pays for itself, since the recovered gas is often worth more than the cost of capturing it. 

Cost still varies sharply by lever, though. One estimate makes the gap concrete: bringing one mid-size offshore platform’s methane emissions to near zero might run $10 million to $15 million, against upwards of $150 million to electrify that same platform and $250 million to add carbon capture. That gap is why sequencing matters, measure the baseline, identify the dominant source, prioritize by cost and impact, then mitigate: 

• Reduce routine venting — replace or retrofit gas-driven pneumatic devices, improve compressor seals, and capture gas that would otherwise be released. 
• Detect and repair leaks — combine LDAR programs with satellites, drones and fixed sensors to find and prioritize fugitive emissions. 
• Reduce flaring — capture, reinject or utilize gas instead of burning it off, and improve flare efficiency where flaring can’t yet be eliminated. 
• Address remaining combustion emissions — electrify equipment or add carbon capture where the economics justify it. 

The final step is verification: routing that same baseline into a system that can flag a leak, trigger a repair, and produce the evidence regulators and buyers are asking for, the same kind of monitoring that caught Argentina’s leak through MARS. That’s what turns a one-off project into a program an operator can sustain and prove.

Why Moving First Pays Off

This isn’t only about a regulatory deadline; it’s about protecting the contracts that keep the business running. An unresolved leak, now visible from orbit, is a legal and reputational exposure that doesn’t disappear because a filing date slips, and European importers are already preparing for stricter methane requirements on the oil and gas they buy. 

Argentina may be the clearest example today, but the message reaches well beyond one country. Building real measurement, reporting and verification capability is becoming core to operational resilience across Latin America’s energy sector, and operators that invest early will be better positioned to recover value, demonstrate compliance and meet the expectations of regulators and buyers alike.

 At Envana, we work with operators across the region on digital emissions reporting, OGMP 2.0 alignment, and regulatory readiness. Reach out to learn how we can help you get ahead of Latin America’s methane moment. 

What does methane readiness look like for your organization? Join the conversation on LinkedIn and explore five questions every Neuquén operator should be asking.