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New Energy World™
New Energy World™ embraces the whole energy industry as it connects and converges to address the decarbonisation challenge. It covers progress being made across the industry, from the dynamics under way to reduce emissions in oil and gas, through improvements to the efficiency of energy conversion and use, to cutting-edge initiatives in renewable and low-carbon technologies.
Reducing flaring: six oil companies around the world show how it’s done
25/6/2025
10 min read
Feature
Six case studies show that, despite the difficulties, gas flaring can be reduced, to the benefit of the environment, of local citizens and the operators themselves, write Andrew Bernstein and Tom Mitre, both Senior Fellows at the Columbia Center of Sustainable Investment, and Mark Davis, CEO of satellite emissions monitoring firm Capterio.
Gas flaring is the burning of so-called ‘associated gas’ – the gas that is produced as a byproduct of oil production. It is a large issue, about 150bn m3/y. That’s about 4% of global production, and about a $30bn revenue opportunity, or represents emissions totalling 1bn tCO2e or more. If we can fix flaring, we can not only reduce emissions, but also improve energy security, generate revenue and accelerate the transition.
Flaring is part of a broader family of sources of methane within the oil and gas industry, which includes venting and leaking. Methane emissions are rightly getting a lot of focus in the news and media, and in scientific study. That’s because methane is a highly potent greenhouse gas (GHG), 30 to 80 times more than CO2. But the link to flaring is important because flaring, which is mostly burning natural gas, also has incomplete combustion, so it releases significant sources of methane. By fixing flaring, we can also address this very important methane challenge.
Barriers that are cited as hindering progress against flaring today include things like a lack of infrastructure needed to send the gas to market, a lack of a buyer, a lack of an attractive market, project complexity, data gaps and lack of awareness. Lack of penalties or their enforcement, non-conducive fiscal regimes, regulatory obstacles, and lack of capital or financing are also noted. We believe that most of these barriers can be overcome. In fact, those countries and companies that have made progress have already done so.