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Oil-producing nations will have to control gas flaring
Companies in the Middle East will have to look at corporate sustainability seriously in the coming years as environment and climate change issues gain momentum, according to industry leaders.
- By Saifur Rahman, Business News Editor
- Published: 23:16 August 30, 2007
Dubai: Companies in the Middle East will have to look at corporate sustainability seriously in the coming years as environment and climate change issues gain momentum, according to industry leaders.
"According to satellite data, in 2006, oil producing countries and companies burned about 170 billion cubic metres (BCM) of natural gas worldwide or nearly five trillion cubic feet," said a latest World Bank report released yesterday, a copy of which was obtained by Gulf News.
"That is equivalent to 27 per cent of total US natural gas consumption and 5.5 per cent of total global production of natural gas for the year. If the gas had been sold in the US instead of being flared, the total US market value would have been about $40 billion. Gas flaring also emits some 400 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions."
Around 22 countries have increased gas flaring over the past 12 years. These include Azerbaijan, Chad, China, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mauritania, Myanmar, Oman, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Qatar, Russia (excluding Khanty Mansiysk region), Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Sudan, Thailand, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Yemen.
Satellite observations also show that 16 countries have decreased gas flaring from 1995 to 2006, including Algeria, Argentina, Bolivia, Cameroon, Chile, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Libya, Nigeria, North Sea, Norway, Peru, Syria, UAE and US (offshore), the report says.
"Gas flaring not only harms the environment by contributing to global warming but is a huge waste of a cleaner source of energy that could be used to generate much needed electricity in poor countries around the world," says Bent Svensson, manager of the Bank's Global Gas Flaring Reduction partnership (GGFR) partnership.
Flaring or burning of gas is widely used to dispose of natural gas liberated during oil production and processing. This occurs in remote areas where there is often no infrastructure on site to make use of the gas.
Renewed efforts are being made to eliminate flaring, such as re-injecting it into the ground to boost oil production, converting it into liquefied natural gas for shipment, transporting it to markets via pipelines, or using it for power generation.
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