Nigeria and other oil-producing countries where gas flaring prevails lose $82 billion dollars yearly, a report by GlobalData revealed.
The report noted that despite the availability of technological solutions to curb gas flaring, it remains one of the top contributors to CO2 emissions globally.
Gas flaring is the burning off of a surplus of natural gas during oil and gas operations.
Countries that contributed more than 87 percent of flared gas in 2020 include Nigeria, Angola, Iraq, Malaysia, Mexico, Russia, Algeria, the US, Venezuela, Libya, Indonesia and Iran, the report said.
Proferring a more profitable use of the excess gas, a Senior Oil and Gas Analyst at GlobalData, Anna Belova, said that oil-producing countries in Europe and Asia especially would benefit from selling off the extra gas amid rising prices of natural gas in their respective regions.
Belova said, “It would do many countries, especially in Europe and Asia where natural gas prices are setting all-time records, a lot of good if oil and gas operators found the strategy to sell this gas rather than lose it – not only for the money but for meeting their CO2 targets too.
“The top 12 gas-flaring countries flared almost 13 billion cubic feet of gas per day (bcfd). To put that into context, that amount of gas could easily keep the whole of Japan well supplied for a year. All of that power has simply gone to waste.”
The report highlighted some factors that contribute to the abiding act of gas flaring in oil-producing countries, chalking it up to a “lack of access to these markets”.
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It identified another pain point, which it said was the “low domestic gas prices in most of the top flaring countries.”
Belova continued her submission, “Reducing global gas flaring will require a multi-prong approach due to unique regional drivers that prioritize flaring over monetization of gas.
“Small-scale modular technologies, aimed at converting gas into liquids or chemicals, represent a logical choice for remote and distributed flaring sites.
“Alternatively, multiple sites by different operators can be combined with large-scale midstream and downstream components – provided enough flaring density. This approach was pioneered by Saudi Aramco and has now been applied in Texas, with LNG-based monetization of gas, and Russia, with natural gas used as feedstock for petrochemicals.
“Given that technological solutions exist at multiple scales, regulatory and investor pressures are needed to drive investments, supported by voluntary environmental, social and governance (ESG) commitments by operators to end routine flaring of gas globally.”
