Waste Gas Flared by Oil Industry Rising, Warns World Bank

Natural gas flaring at oil sites around the world is on the up, cutting the industry’s costs but damaging the climate

In 2015, 147 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas was flared at oil production sites around the world – up from 145bcm in 2014 and 141bcm in 2013.

That’s a waste of energy on a massive scale:  according to the World Bank, if the gas flared was used for power generation it would be more than enough to provide the current annual electricity consumption of the whole of Africa.

Oil producers often prefer to burn off gas associated with oil extraction activities rather than invest capital in pipes and pumping stations to transport the gas to consumers.

Gas flaring is also a significant factor driving global warming.  More than 16,000 gas flares at oil production sites around the world result in about 350 million tons of climate-changing CO2 being emitted into the atmosphere every year.  The flares from numerous shale oil wells in the US can be seen from space.

The World Bank says flaring in northern areas of the globe is also a major source of black carbon or soot which when deposited on Arctic ice, accelerates melting.

The latest data on flaring has been released by the Global Gas Flaring Reduction Partnership, a Bank-led organisation made up of governments, oil companies and various international bodies.

“The oil and gas industry has to step up and acknowledge that it’s time to change the way they do business,” a Bank official told Climate News Network.

According to the figures – gathered by the Bank and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) from advanced satellite sensors – Russia is the largest gas flaring country, burning about 21 bcm annually, followed by Iraq (16bcm), Iran (12bcm), the US (12bcm) and Venezuela (9bcm).

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