Mexico’s oil company acknowledges releasing methane plume

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s state-owned Petroleos Mexicanos oil company has acknowledged it released a huge plume of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. It happened last year, when a company oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico stopped flaring, or burning off oil well gases, for a period of around two weeks. A report published in June by Spanish researchers estimated 40,000 tons of methane was released. Petroleos Mexicanos acknowledged Thursday that winds and rains extinguished flames meant to burn off the gas. But the company said most of the gas release was innocuous nitrogen, with 2,224 tons of methane, about 5% the amount estimated by the Spanish researchers.