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The wasteful practice of gas flaring is on its way out:
The Beginning of the End for Gas Flaring
The Texas Railroad Commission last month surprised many: it said it would tighten the rules for gas flaring at oil fields later this year. Texas is certainly not the state with the best environmental policies record for obvious reasons, such as the fact it is the largest single producer of oil in the U.S. But gas flaring literally wastes billions of dollars. Perhaps the time has come to stop the waste.
Every year, the oil and gas industry flares some 150 billion cubic meters of natural gas. The reasons vary: at oil fields, gas is flared when there are no pipelines to transport it to a collection or storage hub; at refineries, some gases need to be flared to avoid explosions.
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It’s not just money that is wasted, either. The World Bank, which has launched a “Zero Routine Flaring by 2030” initiative, has calculated that the amount of gas flared annually could generate as much as 750 billion kWh of electricity. This is more than Africa’s total consumption. While the WB notes that not all flared gas can be used for electricity generation, there are other things one can do with it, such as reinject it into oil wells to stimulate production.
The Texas Railroad Commission last month surprised many: it said it would tighten the rules for gas flaring at oil fields later this year. Texas is certainly not the state with the best environmental policies record for obvious reasons, such as the fact it is the largest single producer of oil in the U.S. But gas flaring literally wastes billions of dollars. Perhaps the time has come to stop the waste.
Every year, the oil and gas industry flares some 150 billion cubic meters of natural gas. The reasons vary: at oil fields, gas is flared when there are no pipelines to transport it to a collection or storage hub; at refineries, some gases need to be flared to avoid explosions.
...
It’s not just money that is wasted, either. The World Bank, which has launched a “Zero Routine Flaring by 2030” initiative, has calculated that the amount of gas flared annually could generate as much as 750 billion kWh of electricity. This is more than Africa’s total consumption. While the WB notes that not all flared gas can be used for electricity generation, there are other things one can do with it, such as reinject it into oil wells to stimulate production.
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