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Global gas flaring drops 3% in 2022

GLOBAL THE global oil and gas industry managed to
reduce gas flaring by 3% last year to 139bn cubic
metres, from 144 bcm in the previous year, the
World Bank reported on March 29 in its new
Global Gas Flaring Report (GGFR), despite oil
production rising by 5% to 80mn barrels per day
(bpd).
This meant that global average flaring inten-
sity, or the volume of gas flared per barrel of oil
produced, fell to 4.7 from 5.1 cubic metres per
barrel. The decline was driven by flaring cuts in
Nigeria, Mexico and the US. The World Bank
also noted that Kazakhstan and Colombia stood – provide hope that they will follow suit and that
out for consistently reducing flaring over the last their efforts to reduce flaring will accelerate as
seven years. the key ingredients for success, such as effective
The top nine flaring countries – Iraq, Iran, regulation and enforcement, political will and
Algeria, Venezuela, the United States, Mexico, infrastructure, are put in place,” GGFR said.
Libya, and Nigeria – remain responsible for the In its own report on flaring in September last
overwhelming majority of flaring, the World year, the International Energy Agency (IEA)
Bank said. They accounted for almost three noted that with gas prices at historic highs, the
quarters of volumes last year, despite contribut- practice was “an extraordinary waste of economy
ing less than half of global oil supply. value”, estimating that as much as $55bn per year
“This wasted gas could displace dirtier energy of gas priced at $10 per mmBtu is being burnt.
sources, increase energy access in some of the The Paris-based agency’s Net Zero Emissions by
world’s poorest countries and provide many 2050 Scenario envisages all non-emergency flar-
countries with much-needed energy security,” ing being eliminated globally by 2030, causing
the World Bank said. “If put to productive pur- flared volumes to drop by around 90%.
poses, the amount of gas flared in 2022, could Russia dramatically cut gas flow to Europe
generate as much electricity as sub-Saharan via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline in June and July
Africa currently produces in a year.” last year, owing to what Gazprom claimed was
Despite Russia drastically cutting pipeline gas equipment failure caused by Western sanctions.
supply to Europe – by around 80-85% over the By August, the pipeline was operating at only
past year – this did not lead to the country flar- 20% of its capacity, and the following month it
ing more gas. The EU has significantly stepped was rendered inoperable by sabotage. As noted,
up LNG imports from the US, Angola, Norway, Russian pipeline gas flow to Europe is now at
Qatar and Egypt, and ramped up pipeline sup- 80-85% of the pre-war level.
plies from Azerbaijan. Among those suppliers, However, this has not led to an observa-
the US and Angola have achieved the most pro- ble increase in flaring, with the volume largely
gress in commercialising associated gas streams. static between 2021 and 2022, even though Rus-
GGFR estimates that in 2022, gas flaring sia increased oil supply by 2%. Russia’s flaring
The decline was released 357mn tonnes of CO2 equivalent in intensity registered 6.8 cubic metres per barrel
driven by flaring methane form, as a result of gas escaping flowers last year, from 6.9 in 2021.
cuts in Nigeria, without being burnt. Methane is significantly This decline is particularly surprising given
more potent a greenhouse gas (GHG) than CO2, a number of news reports last year about Russia
Mexico and the but its duration in the atmosphere is also much burning large volumes of gas at the Portovaya
shorter-lived, meaning that action to reduce compressor station that handles Nord Stream 1’s
US. emissions today will have a faster impact than gas, as Gazprom was unable to deliver the sup-
tackling CO2 emissions.
ply to Russia. A Bloomberg report in September
There is significant uncertainty around noted that daily flaring at Gazprom’s main Yamal
methane emissions from gas flaring, the report fields was at the normal seasonal level. This is
noted. If the average flaring is just 5 percentage due to the fact that the production level at these
points less efficient in burning gas than gener- deposits is very flexible.
ally assumed, it estimated that this would cause “Due to the uneven consumption patterns,
global methane emissions to be three times Gazprom has to change its production sig-
higher. nificantly on a monthly basis every year,” said
Oil companies will flare gas if there is a lack Vyacheslav Kulagin, head of department at the
of infrastructure and market to monetise the gas, Energy Research Institute in the Russian Acad-
and GGFR also points to a lack of regulation and emy of Sciences, told Bloomberg. “Gazprom’s
political well. several major upstream projects function
“However, alongside the countries that like gas cylinders, where the tap is sometimes
continued to reduce flaring in 2022, several opened to the full, and sometimes significantly
other countries – including Algeria and Egypt turned down.”™

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