Gas Flare - Environmental Impacts of Flaring Associated Gas From Oil Drilling Sites

Environmental Impacts of Flaring Associated Gas From Oil Drilling Sites

As noted earlier above, flaring constitutes a hazard to human health and also significantly contributes to the worldwide anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide. For example, oil refinery flare stacks may emit methane and other volatile organic compounds as well as sulfur dioxide and other sulfur compounds, and toxics ... all of which are known to exacerbate asthma and other respiratory problems. As another example, flaring at oil and gas production sites may emit methane, sulfur dioxide, aromatic hydrocarbons (benzene, toluene and xylenes), as well as carcinogens such as benzapyrene.

As of the end of 2011, 150 × 109 cubic meters (5.3 × 1012 cubic feet) of associated gas are flared annually. That is equivalent to about 25 per cent of the annual natural gas consumption in the United States or about 30 per cent of the annual gas consumption in the European Union.

As of 2010, 10 countries accounted for 70 per cent of the flaring, and twenty for 85 per cent. The top ten leading contributors to world gas flaring in 2010, were (in declining order): Russia (26%), Nigeria (11%), Iran (8%), Iraq (7%), Algeria (4%), Angola (3%), Kazakhstan (3%), Libya (3%), Saudi Arabia (3%) and Venezuela (2%).

That amount of flaring and burning of associated gas from oil drilling sites is a significant source of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. Some 400 × 106 tons of carbon dioxide are emitted annually in this way and it amounts to about 1.2 per cent of the worldwide emissions of carbon dioxide. That may seem to be insignificant, but in perspective it is more than half of the Certified Emissions Reductions (a type of carbon credits) that have been issued under the rules and mechanisms of the Kyoto Protocol as of June 2011.

Satellite data on global gas flaring show that the current efforts to reduce gas flaring are paying off. From 2005 to 2010, the global estimate for gas flaring decreased by about 20%. The most significant reductions in terms of volume were made in Russia and Nigeria.