News Excerpt:
The World Bank's Global Gas Flaring Tracker Report 2024 provides insights into the extent of gas flaring worldwide, highlighting trends, regional variations, and progress made in reducing flaring through various initiatives and technologies.
More about the Global Gas Flaring Tracker:
- Global Gas Flaring Tracker is the only global and independent indicator of routine gas flaring.
- The estimates allow us to monitor global flaring levels and track progress toward our goal of Zero Routine Flaring by 2030.
Gas Flaring:
- Gas flaring is the burning of the natural gas associated with oil extraction. The practice has persisted from the beginning of oil production over 160 years ago.
- It takes place due to a range of issues, from market and economic constraints to a lack of appropriate regulation and political will.
- Flaring and venting are a waste of a valuable natural resource that should either be used for productive purposes, such as generating power or conserved.
Why is gas flared?
- Flaring persists to this day because it is a relatively safe, though wasteful and polluting, method of disposing of the associated gas that comes from oil production.
- Utilizing associated gas often requires economically viable markets for companies to make the investments necessary to capture, transport, process, and sell the gas.
- Flaring may also be required for safety reasons.
- Extracting and processing oil and gas involves dealing with exceptionally high, and changeable, pressures.
- During crude oil extraction, a sudden or dramatic increase in pressure could cause an explosion.
- Gas flaring allows operators to depressurize their equipment and manage unpredictable and large pressure variations by burning any excess gas.
Key Highlights of the Report:
- Gas flaring by oil and gas producers rose by about 7% last year to 148 billion cubic meters compared to 2022. The increase in flaring resulted in an additional 23 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions.
- 148 billion cubic meters (bcm) of associated gas was flared at upstream oil and gas facilities and LNG liquefaction plants in 2023.
- Oil production remained relatively stable in the period, resulting in a 5% increase in the amount of gas flared per barrel produced.
- The increase in flaring activity marks a reversal to reductions seen between 2021 and 2022, undermining a World Bank initiative to end routine flaring within six years.
- The oil and gas sector is responsible for about a fifth of human-made methane emissions due to leaks and gas flaring, half of which come from producers in developing nations, according to the World Bank.
- Nine countries that accounted for 75% of the flaring and 46% of global oil output include Russia, Iran, Iraq, the US, Venezuela, Algeria, Libya, Nigeria, and Mexico. These nations have dominated flaring globally for more than a decade and some have increased gas burning intensity, according to the report.
Way Forward:
- Flaring is totally unproductive and can be avoided far more easily than many other sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The gas could be put to good use and potentially displace other more polluting fuels, such as coal and diesel, that generate higher emissions per energy unit.
- Gas flaring continues to be a complex issue influenced by economic, market, regulatory, and political factors.
- While some countries have made strides in reducing flaring, the overall increase in 2023 demonstrates the need for continued and enhanced efforts.
- The governments, operators, and stakeholders need to prioritize sustained action to reduce gas flaring and methane emissions from oil and gas operations to mitigate climate change impacts and ensure a sustainable future.
- In 2015, the World Bank and the UN Secretary-General launched the Zero Routine Flaring by 2030 (ZRF) initiative, which commits governments and oil companies to not routinely flare gas in any new oil field development and to end existing (legacy) routine flaring as soon as possible and no later than 2030.
