Despite big promises by oil majors to reduce gas flaring, the practice continues to be a major issue, contributing to high levels of greenhouse gas emissions. The International Energy Agency (IEA) and several state governments are aiming to achieve a global green transition, but decarbonising certain sectors, such as the oil industry, is proving extremely difficult. If gas flaring continues to take place, it could compromise the acceleration to green.

Gas flaring is the burning of the natural gas associated with oil extraction. The practice has been carried out by oil companies for over 160 years, as there has been little financial incentive to capture the waste gas. Lax regulations in the sector have allowed companies to long continue flaring even when it was known to be highly polluting. 

Around 151 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas is flared each year, the equivalent of the amount needed to power the whole of sub-Saharan Africa. Each year, flaring releases around 400 million tonnes of CO2e emissions into the atmosphere, which is more than that released by many entire countries. In addition, flaring releases methane emissions, which contribute heavily to global warming, as methane is over 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide as a warming gas on a 20-year timeframe. 

Governments and international organisations have put increasing pressure on oil companies to stop flaring gas and instead capture it, to prevent unnecessary pollution into the atmosphere. Oil companies may also use this captured gas for productive purposes, such as generating power. The World Bank’s Zero Routine Flaring (ZRF) by 2030 initiative, launched in 2015, commits governments and oil companies to end routine flaring no later than 2030. Currently, 36 states and 60 oil and gas companies endorse the initiative. The IEA has similarly called for an end to all flaring, except in emergencies, by 2030.

According to a recent World Bank report, which used satellite data to estimate flared gas, the fossil fuel industry released an additional 389 million tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in 2024 from gas flaring activities. This represents a huge quantity of fuel waste, as well as unnecessary pollution. Global gas flaring increased for a second consecutive year to reach its highest level since 2007, according to the report. 

Zubin Bamji, the manager of the World Bank’s Global Flaring and Methane Reduction partnership (GFMR), said, “Flaring is needlessly wasteful. [It’s] a missed opportunity to strengthen energy security and improve access to reliable power.”

Many complain that regulations on gas flaring are too weak and poorly enforced, meaning that most companies around the world are not incentivised to invest in gas capture, and, therefore, continue to flare gas. According to the report, nine countries – Russia, Iran, Iraq, the U.S., Venezuela, Algeria, Libya, Mexico, and Nigeria – were responsible for three-quarters of all gas flaring last year. Most of these countries have state-owned oil companies. Meanwhile, flaring intensity in Norway, which has invested heavily in shifting to “low-carbon” oil production, is 18 times lower than in the U.S. and 228 times lower than in Venezuela. 

In Canada’s oil-producing region of Alberta, gas flaring in 2024 was far higher than the province’s self-imposed limit for a second year in a row, according to data from Reuters. Alberta’s crude oil production set a record last year at 1.5 billion barrels, marking a 4.5 percent increase over 2023, as it attempts to reduce its reliance on the neighbouring United States for energy. In June, Alberta’s energy regulator announced it was ending the limit on flaring, following direction from the provincial government. Reuters estimates that Alberta’s oil and gas firms in the province flared roughly 912.7 million cubic metres of natural gas in 2024, which was 36 percent higher than the annual provincial limit of 670 million cubic metres. 

The value of the flared gas from 2024, around $63 billion at last year’s EU import prices, is equivalent to over half the upfront costs required to stop the practice altogether, according to the IEA. However, most countries still lack the political will and regulatory pressure to implement solutions. 

However, some countries have made drastic improvements to their gas flaring levels. Countries such as Angola, Egypt, Indonesia, and Kazakhstan have all reduced gas flaring in recent years. Kazakhstan has managed to reduce flaring by 71 percent since 2012 by introducing steep fines on companies that break the rules.

While several countries and oil companies have committed to reducing gas flaring levels in recent years, many continue to practice flaring activities, with little incentive to invest in alternative solutions. Gas flaring levels will likely only decrease if governments worldwide impose stricter regulations on companies that practice flaring. Meanwhile, the continued practice of gas flaring will contribute heavily to global warming, which will have a knock-on effect on global green transition progress.

By Felicity Bradstock for Oilprice.com

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