Capterio’s analysis and insight feature in IEA’s flaring commentary

The IEA has just published a commentary titled “putting gas flaring in the spotlight” which highlights the scale of the oil and gas industry’s flaring challenge, but also talks to examples of flare solutions and best practices. Delivering material flare reductions are key to delivering the IEA’s sustainable development scenario.

The authors are the IEA’s Rebecca Schultz, Christophe McGlade and Peter Zeniewski, and Capterio is delighted to have supported this commentary with data, analysis and insight.

Key insights from their commentary

• 25% of associated gas is wasted, and of this, 150 BCM is flared, 55 BCM is vented
• most flares are continuous in nature, and are material in size
• more than half of flaring is within 20 km of an existing gas pipeline
• much can be done to reduce flaring – and consumers are increasingly demanding better quality gas

Size and utilisation of flares by country, 2019

Notes: Size (total volume of gas flared): small: < 0.03 million cubic metres per day (Mm3/d), medium: 0.03-0.1 Mm3/d, large: > 0.1 Mm3/d. Frequency (percentage of time when flaring is observed): infrequent: <30%, common: 30-85%, continuous: >85%. Source: World Bank, NOAA, Colorado School of Mines and Capterio analysis