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Methane pollution from the oil-and-gas industry in B.C. is more than twice that reported by the provincial government, an environmental study concludes.

Currently, government estimates for the amount of methane pollution from the oil patch are based on self-reporting by industry, best guesses for leaks based on existing oil and gas infrastructure, and limited point-source measurements, says the study.

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Field research into industry methane emission in 2015 and 2016 by the David Suzuki Foundation and Nova Scotia-based St. Francis Xavier University in the gas-rich Montney Basin shared by B.C. and Alberta found those measurements to be inaccurate.

Researchers travelled more than 8,000 kilometres in a “sniffer truck” using a vehicle-mounted spectrometer covering more than 1,600 well pads and facilities. Full results are now published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.