Efforts to end routine gas flaring by 2030 suffered a major blow last year, when global gas flaring at upstream oil and gas facilities hit its highest level since 2019’s decade high, according to satellite data compiled by the World Bank. Its most recent Global Gas Flaring Tracker Report, released last week, showed that the total volume reached 148 billion cubic meters, up by 9 Bcm from 2022. The additional 23 million tons of CO2 equivalent emissions resulting from that — which experts say include a very conservative estimate on unburned methane emissions — is similar in effect to adding 5 million cars to the road.
Iran, Russia, the US and Libya drove the 6.5% year-on-year rise that came despite growing climate fears. Often described as one of the quickest wins in decarbonizing the world’s energy system, circumstances have conspired to reverse progress, particularly in fragile and sanctions-hit states, and in the US, where unusually hot weather in Texas and rising shale production on state-regulated land aggravated the problem.
“The increase in gas flaring is particularly disheartening, as it comes after a long-overdue reduction in 2022,” Zubin Bamji, the program manager for the World Bank’s Global Gas Flaring Reduction Partnership, said in a statement accompanying the report. “With only six years left to achieve Zero Routine Flaring by 2030, the world needs to rapidly accelerate efforts to reduce gas flaring,” he added.
Different factors explain the regression of some of the top flaring countries. In Iran, for example, the surge in flaring was partly attributed to its rising oil production, while in Russia, by some distance the worst offender, production fell. But for both countries, an unintended consequence of sanctions has been to hamper their ability to invest in the infrastructure needed to capture and utilize the associated gas they produce. Russia also has less incentive to curb gas flaring and methane emissions with its European oil export market now largely closed.
Advances in Flaring Reduction
But there may be some grounds for optimism in other countries where projects are being pursued that could make a material difference, even if last year’s rise in gas flaring far outweighed any improvements and put the 2030 target further in doubt.
Iraq, which has for years come second on the list of gas-flaring offenders, was overtaken by Iran this year even though its own performance was little changed. The country sent 1.7 billion cubic feet per day (17.7 Bcm per year) up in smoke in 2023 according to the World Bank. But the $4 billion annual cost to Baghdad of importing Iranian gas to cover Iraq’s supply deficit, combined with energy security concerns, especially in the hot summer months when Iran’s gas supplies become notoriously unreliable, are finally driving progress on gas capture.
Iraq’s oil minister claimed earlier this month that dramatic progress has been made on that front, with the country now flaring 1.1 Bcf/d. If the figure is accurate, it means Iraq has cut its overall volumes of flared gas by 600 million cubic feet per day, or some 6.2 Bcm/yr. Alongside two other major gas capture projects due on stream in the next eight months, with a combined capacity of 400 MMcf/d, Iraq’s progress could more than offset the backsliding seen last year in global gas flaring. That is before the even bigger TotalEnergies project comes online, whose first phase is planned for completion in 2027.
In the US, absolute flaring volumes may have risen last year, but the country still has by far the lowest flaring intensity of the top nine flaring nations. And new federal rules that were finalized in 2023 and 2024 enhance requirements to end routine gas flaring, as well as to reduce methane venting and leaking. The report also commended Algeria, where the largest reduction in flaring was observed in 2023, for sustained improvements.
Antoine Halff, chief analyst for data analytics firm Kayrros, which provides data used in the World Bank report, argues that despite last year’s regression on global gas flaring, there are encouraging developments. These include the technology to capture the gas relatively easily, and the strong commercial incentives for countries like Iraq with its fast-growing population and power demand to exploit that technology.
The advances in emissions detection technology are another key development that makes it possible, for example, to identify venting events that can be attributed to extinguished or malfunctioning flares. “This could not be done until recently,” Halff tells Energy Intelligence. “So the fact that we can detect, measure, verify, and attribute all these [emissions] is really a very…
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