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<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">EGUsphere</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>EGUsphere</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="nlm-ta">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="epub"></issn>
<publisher><publisher-name>Copernicus Publications</publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Göttingen, Germany</publisher-loc>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5194/egusphere-2025-377</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>Isotopic signatures of methane emission from oil and natural gas plants in southwestern China</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Chen</surname>
<given-names>Dingxi</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff5">
<sup>5</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Liu</surname>
<given-names>Yi</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff5">
<sup>5</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Niu</surname>
<given-names>Zetong</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0009-0008-9160-1130</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Wang</surname>
<given-names>Ao</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Otwil</surname>
<given-names>Pius</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Huang</surname>
<given-names>Yuanyuan</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Sun</surname>
<given-names>Zhongcong</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Pang</surname>
<given-names>Xiaobing</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Zhan</surname>
<given-names>Liyang</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4">
<sup>4</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Yu</surname>
<given-names>Longfei</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2127-6343</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Ecological Remediation and Carbon Sequestration,  Institute of Environment and Ecology, Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate   School, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen 518055, China</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff2">
<label>2</label>
<addr-line>Safety, Environment and Technology Supervision Research Institute of PetroChina Southwest Oil and Gas Field Company, Chengdu 610041, China</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff3">
<label>3</label>
<addr-line>College of Environment, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, 310014,  China</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff4">
<label>4</label>
<addr-line>Key Laboratory of Global Change and Marine-Atmospheric Chemistry, Third  Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, Xiamen, 361005, China</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff5">
<label>5</label>
<addr-line>These authors contributed equally to this work.</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>05</day>
<month>03</month>
<year>2025</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2025</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>34</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2025 Dingxi Chen et al.</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2025</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access">
<license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit <ext-link ext-link-type="uri"  xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ext-link></license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2025/egusphere-2025-377/">This article is available from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2025/egusphere-2025-377/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2025/egusphere-2025-377/egusphere-2025-377.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2025/egusphere-2025-377/egusphere-2025-377.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>Methane (CH&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt;) emissions to atmosphere from Chinese oil and gas (ONG) sector are subject to considerable uncertainty. The isotopic composition of CH&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt; isotopes (&amp;delta;&lt;sup&gt;13&lt;/sup&gt;C) varies between emission sources, enabling the identification of changes in specific CH&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt; sources. However, there are few relevant studies in China, especially at the ONG site level. We obtained CH&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt; mixing ratios and isotopes from atmospheric samples collected by UAV and ground monitoring, and employed the HYSPLIT model to investigate CH&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt; distribution at ONG sites in southwest China. It was found that the CH&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt; isotopic signatures provide a strong basis for the emission intensity at the ONG sites. The meteorological and site conditions were identified as the most influential factors in CH&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt; distribution at sites. The CH&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt; from the equipment area contributed approximately a quarter of the CH&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt; observed over the sites. The CH&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt; source isotopic signatures (&amp;delta;&lt;sup&gt;13&lt;/sup&gt;C) of this study were heavier than those globally, indicating that they were mainly thermogenic sources. Finally, the heavier &amp;delta;&lt;sup&gt;13&lt;/sup&gt;C of this region may lead to an overestimation emission of global CH&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt; from fossil fuel sources by 3.47 Tg CH&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt; yr&lt;sup&gt;-1&lt;/sup&gt;, and underestimation from microbial sources. This study highlights the importance of regional CH&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt; isotopes, with great significance for CH&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt; inventories of global sectors.</p>
</abstract>
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<funding-group>
<award-group id="gs1">
<funding-source>Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School</funding-source>
<award-id>the Scientific Research Start-up Funds (QD2022010C)</award-id>
<award-id>Cross-disciplinary Research and Innovation Fund Research Plan (Grant No. JC2022010)</award-id>
</award-group>
</funding-group>
</article-meta>
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