Oil firms support Word Bank’s zero flaring initiative
OIL companies and governments are increasingly seeking solutions to reduce flaring of natural gas at oil production sites.
Already, chief executives from major oil companies have joined together with senior government officials from several oil-producing countries to commit, for the first time, to ending the practice of routine gas flaring at oil production sites by 2030 at the latest.
The “Zero Routine Flaring by 2030” initiative—already endorsed by nine countries, ten oil companies and six development institutions—was launched today by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim.
They were joined by Royal Dutch Shell Chairman Jorma Ollila; Statoil Chief Executive Officer, Eldar Sætre; Norwegian Foreign Minister Børge Brende; Gabonese Minister of Petroleum Etienne Dieudonne Ngoubou; and several other senior government and corporate officials, and representatives of international development banks.
The endorsers collectively represent more than 40 percent of global gas flaring.
According to the world bank, every year, around 140 billion cubic meters of natural gas produced together with oil is wastefully burned or “flared” at thousands of oil fields around the world.
It noted that this results in more than 300 million tons of CO2 being emitted to the atmosphere—equivalent to emissions from approximately 77 million cars. “If this amount of associated gas were used for power generation, it could provide more electricity (750bn kWh) than the entire African continent is consuming today. But currently, the gas is flared for a variety of technical, regulatory, and economic reasons, or because its use is not given high priority”, it added.
World Bank President Jim Yong Kim stated that gas flaring is a visual reminder that we are wastefully sending CO2 into the atmosphere. “We can do something about this. Together we can take concrete action to end flaring and to use this valuable natural resource to light the darkness for those without electricity.”
The world said that by endorsing the initiative, governments, oil companies and development institutions recognize that routine gas flaring is unsustainable from a resource management and environmental perspective and agree to cooperate to eliminate ongoing routine flaring as soon as possible and no later than 2030.
It stated: “They will publicly report their flaring and progress towards the target on an annual basis. Furthermore, routine flaring will not take place in new oil fields developments. Governments will provide an operating environment conducive to investments and to the development of functioning energy markets”, it said.
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1 Comments
nigeria oil companies continue to flare gases because of the inability of the govt to develop the demand and necessary infrastructure to deal with it. our generation companies needs this gas, our industries need this gas, residential and commercial consumer can use this gas. it is all depends on our leaders to develop an effective distribution and development of this gas
We will review and take appropriate action.