The fossil fuel industry pumped an extra 389 million tonnes of carbon pollution into the atmosphere last year by needlessly flaring gas, a World Bank report has found, in an “enormous waste” of fuel that heats the planet by about as much as the country of France.
Flaring is a way to get rid of gases such as methane that arise when pumping oil out of the ground. While it can sometimes keep workers safe by relieving buildups of pressure, the practice is routine in many countries because it is often cheaper to burn gas than to capture, transport, process and sell it.
Global gas flaring rose for a second year in a row to reach its highest level since 2007, the report found, despite growing concerns about energy security and climate breakdown, The Guardian UK reported.
It found that 151 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas were burned during oil and gas production in 2024, up by 3 bcm from the year before.
“Flaring is needlessly wasteful,” said Zubin Bamji, the Manager of the World Bank’s Global Flaring and Methane Reduction partnership (GFMR), which wrote the report. “(It’s) a missed opportunity to strengthen energy security and improve access to reliable power,” he added.
In many cases, observers complain, the rules to prevent needless flaring are weak and poorly enforced, and companies have little incentive to stop doing it because they do not have to pay for the pollution it causes.
The report found that nine countries – Russia, Iran, Iraq, the US, Venezuela, Algeria, Libya, Mexico and Nigeria were responsible for three-quarters of all gas flaring in 2024. Most of the worst offenders were countries with state-owned oil companies.
Despite efforts to stop the practice, the intensity of flaring, the volume flared per barrel of oil produced –had remained “stubbornly high” over the last 15 years, the report found.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) has called for the elimination of all flaring except in emergencies by 2030. The value of gas flared last year, which would have been worth about $63 billion at EU import prices for 2024, is more than half of the upfront costs that the IEA says are needed to stop the practice altogether.
The report, which used satellite data to estimate flared gas, was produced by the GFMR, which is made up of some of the world’s most polluting governments and companies.
Its funders include European energy firms such as BP, Eni, Equinor, Shell and TotalEnergies, as well as major oil-producing countries such as the US, Norway and the United Arab Emirates.
Meanwhile, Nigeria recorded a 12 per cent increase in gas flaring volume in 2024, according to the latest World Bank’s Global Gas Flaring Tracker Report, despite local efforts by the upstream regulator, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC).
“Nigeria experienced a 12 per cent increase in gas flaring in 2024, marking the second consecutive year of rising flaring volumes. Oil production increased by only 3 per cent, which resulted in an 8 per cent increase in flaring intensity from 11.0 m³/bbl in 2023 to 12.0 m³/bbl in 2024, which is more than twice the global average flare intensity.
“Over recent years, as international oil companies have steadily divested onshore assets, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) and several smaller, mainly indigenous companies have acquired these assets and begun to operate them. In 2024, flaring at upstream oil and gas facilities operated by NNPC (and its wholly owned subsidiaries) and these smaller companies, constituted 60 per cent of Nigeria’s gas flaring and contributed to 75 per cent of the flaring increase.
“It is likely that many of the smaller companies are seeking to maximise oil revenues in response to higher prices from 2022 onwards, which has brought with it higher associated gas flaring. These companies may also lack the expertise and funding to undertake capital intensive gas utilisation projects.
“Funding may also be an issue for NNPC, which has previously had difficulties funding its share of investment costs where it is a non-operating partner. The opportunity for using associated gas for power generation, given the lack of access to energy for millions of Nigerians continues to be a challenge with commercial and regulatory issues, electricity grid stability, and limited project financing.
“Furthermore, gas export opportunities remain limited as most smaller companies have no commercial access rights to the most fields that continue to flare are small and isolated, making projects to use the gas challenging and expensive,” the report added.
To help address this, the report said that Nigeria initiated the “Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme” in 2020 and, in the fourth quarter of 2023, awarded contracts to 38 companies to address over 40 flare sites, and to four companies to develop flare reduction projects at nine sites by clustering the flares for economies of scale.
The report further revealed that Russia remains the world’s largest gas flaring country, with flaring volumes rising by 2 per cent in 2024. Global flaring in the upstream oil and gas facilities increased from 148 bcm in 2023 to 151 bcm in 2024.
Emmanuel Addeh
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