A two-day practical training session on the interpretation and application of satellite data for detecting and analyzing methane emissions in the oil and gas sector took place in Ashgabat on November 4–5.

The event was organized by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) through the International Methane Emissions Observatory (IMEO), in collaboration with Carbon Limits. It was held with the support of the project "European Union for Green Development of Turkmenistan: Policy Dialogue and Climate Actions 2024–2029," which is co-funded by the European Union and the German Federal Foreign Office and implemented by GIZ.

More than 35 technical specialists participated in the training, representing the state concerns "Turkmengaz" and "Turkmennebit," the Research Institute of Natural Gas, the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the Ministry of Energy, and the National Space Agency.

The program included three areas:

• working with the MARS system (UNEP/IMEO), including the methodology for rapid response and the interpretation of "methane plumes" using high-resolution satellite imagery;

• incident prioritization—that is, algorithms for identifying and ranking the largest leaks to ensure their prompt remediation;

• comprehensive analysis—that is, the comparison of satellite data with ground-based measurements—to estimate emission volumes at oil and gas infrastructure facilities.

According to one of the participants—a specialist from the state concern “Turkmengaz”—mastering the MARS system and the algorithms for processing high-resolution imagery makes it possible to monitor the situation in real time. "This directly reduces the time between the detection of a leak and its resolution at our facilities," he noted.

The activity was carried out in accordance with the 2025–2026 Roadmap for strengthening Turkmenistan’s international cooperation within the framework of the Global Methane Pledge initiative.