What Landman Gets Right About Gas Leaks and Methane

As season two of the oil-country drama kicks off, it continues to portray the risks of leaking gas in west Texas and other oil patches worldwide.

In the very first episode of Taylor Sheridan’s latest hit series, the Billy Bob Thornton-led Landman, 14.9 million people got to see the risks that oil workers in the West Texas Permian basin take every day to keep supply flowing.

As workers try and fix a rusty pipe valve, a spark ignites the methane spewing from it, creating an enormous fireball that kills the entire crew, save for the son of Thornton’s character, named Cooper.

While Cooper’s aggressive handling of the valve is initially blamed for the accident, it turns out that such deadly mishaps — as well as routine releases — are not uncommon. With Landman Season 2 airing, new research by RMI shows that wasted gas and methane emissions from West Texas’s oil and gas fields are some of the largest in the United States, as shown on the map below. Moreover, not all assets and operations are the same. One equivalent barrel of West Texas gas can leak over three times more than another barrel from the same region.

Texas super-emitters stand out on the map of US oil and gas methane intensities

Note: Outer blue ring shows additional methane leakage from remotely detected super emitters.
Source: RMI Oil Climate Index plus Gas (OCI+), Map page, October 2025, https://ociplus.rmi.org/

Here’s what Landman gets right about risks in the oil patch

• Faulty equipment and outdated machinery cause explosions. Accidents are not the intentional act of oilfield workers. It is reported that more than two workers per month die from explosions, blunt force trauma, poisonous gas, or vehicle crashes. In 2023, someone died every dayon the Permian’s highways in West Texas, double the death count in 2010.
• It’s an ongoing battle to keep aging oil and gas fields up and running, as Thornton’s character in Landman knows firsthand. Texas has a reported 278,000 oil and gas wells currently pumping. The majority — 70 percent — are low-producing marginal wells. And over 70,000 wells trickle at less than one barrel of oil and gas equivalent a day. Marginal wells’ oil field equipment, so prevalent in the United States that they can be found in backyards next to swing sets, is not generally equipped to handle gas and can recklessly spew it into the air.
• Beyond spewing deadly gas and causing explosions, the gas from leaking wells is laden with dangerous chemicals — like the carcinogen benzene — that poison people and their drinking water. Texas’ regulators are increasingly focused on such “priority wells” that are leaking and pose environmental, safety, or economic risks.
• Adequate comprehensive oversight is sorely lacking. US oil and gas production operations are estimated to emit more than 17 million metric tons per year of methane gas. And production in Texas is ground zero for such leaks, responsible for nearly 40 percent of US oil and gas methane emissions. Funding regulators to staff inspectors who can investigate operations is crucial. Last year, the State’s oil regulator requested $100 million to tackle West Texas well blowouts. 
• Prevention puts money back into Americans’ pockets. Studies estimate that leaking gas represents at least $1 billion annually in US commercial gas value and some $10 billion in annual social cost.

Solutions are readily available, and operators are increasingly turning toward them

Gathering and making data on gas waste public can surface tradeoffs and new opportunities. For too long, gas has been seen by the industry as an unwanted waste product of oil production, allowing it to be squandered by venting and flaring. Today, satellites and other sensing equipment are spotting and measuring methane waste. Ongoing remote sensing offers a path to publicly detect thousands of high-consequence events. Getting this into the hands of operators and policy makers can spur rapid mitigation, updating official emissions inventories, and realistic assessments of effective mitigation technologies tailored for specific regions like West Texas.

 An oil and gas operator’s business decisions — and ethics — make a big difference in how much gas leaks, its climate impacts, and overall risks. Flaring and venting unwanted gas from equipment are the largest sources of oil and gas methane pollution. Both are largely preventable. Some companies are beginning to seize the safety, economic, and societal benefits of certifiably producing fewer leaky barrels. This is a huge safety and environmental win. In addition to being toxic and explosive, methane gas is a climate change super-pollutant that heats the planet over 80 times more powerfully than carbon dioxide. The concentration of methane in the atmosphere is currently at the highest level since measurements began. Oil and gas operations offer the easiest and most cost-effective means to slash methane waste.

In the past five years, pioneering efforts have been made to measure and certify oil and gas methane emissions. Cutting-edge opportunities, like MiQ, help companies stop wasting and start making money from their gas. Currently, one in every five cubic feet of US gas has been certified by small and multinational companies alike. And major gas importers, like Europe, are setting the stage for a sizeable price premium on certified low-leakage gas.

Oil and gas operators can take advantage of market incentives to do things the right way. Making it easier than ever for companies to pivot away from outdated practices that lead to excessive leaks will safeguard workers, surrounding communities, and the planet. Taylor Sheridan’s dark television dramas don’t deal in happy endings, but in the real world, we can make the choices that keep us safe, secure, and ready for the future.

We would like to thank Jennifer Stokes, Dina Cappiello, and Shannon Hughes for the contributions to this article.

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