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Flare emissions are increasing, reversing a positive trend, says Rystad Energy

Flare emissions are increasing, reversing a positive trend, says Rystad Energy

According to Rystad Energy’s latest study, flaring emissions from global upstream oil and gas production increased by 7% from 2022 to 2023.

Upstream activities emit about 1 gigaton of carbon dioxide (CO) per year2) overall, with flaring accounting for about 30% of these emissions in 2023, assuming an average flaring efficiency of 98%.

According to Rystad, reducing flaring is considered a simple task for oil and gas companies that want to reduce their carbon footprint. However, this recent increase highlights the challenges facing the industry, particularly in key producing countries such as Russia, Iran and Iraq.

Flaring — the process of burning off excess natural gas during oil production — has long been a concern among environmentalists and policymakers. Although non-routine flaring is often essential for safety or operational reasons, limiting routine flaring can significantly reduce industry emissions intensity.

Magnus Kjemphol Lohne, senior vice president of energy systems research at Rystad Energy, said: “The unexpected reversal of most of these increases in 2023 represents a step in the wrong direction from a climate perspective.” This underlines the importance of continued and increased efforts by companies, countries and industry organizations to set targets and implement measures to combat routine flaring – including in countries where emissions reduction and decarbonization initiatives are less prominent.”

Rystad Energy said its analysis uses satellite data combined with global inventory overviews to assess flaring practices worldwide. It showed that the Middle East, Africa and Russia together accounted for around 70% of the total flaring volume in 2023.

The Middle East in particular saw a sharp increase in flaring volumes, reaching around 45 billion cubic meters (Bcm) – a 7% increase compared to the previous year. At the country level, Russia continues to dominate with around 28 billion cubic meters in 2023 – an increase of 12% compared to the previous year.