Flaring must stop

Flaring of associated natural gas (ANG) wastes a valuable resource and has negative environmental impacts. In contrast, capturing and using ANG would yield economic and environmental benefits when they replace fuels with more emissions (e.g., coal in power generation). The pandemic and the collapse of the oil price will certainly reduce flaring in the United States. But, this economically painful reduction, like the reduction of all emissions across the world due to lockdowns, is temporary. In January 2020, the Energy Institute at the University of Texas at Austin and Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy organized a workshop with a wide range of participants. Recommendations from the workshop offer a pathway towards ending ANG flaring for good. However, the return of upstream activity in the U.S. and its scale are very uncertain. It depends on the price of oil, which may remain lower than the level necessary to justify new investments in U.S. unconventional plays for several years. Many operators have been struggling before the current crisis and will go bankrupt in 2020. Also, midstream investment was already underway to take away ANG. As such, flaring will not be as significant problem in the U.S. In contrast, large volumes will continue to be flared around the world as indicated by the World Bank data. Hopefully, there is a way to implement some of the recommendations for the U.S. in other countries.

Photo source: https://guardian.ng/opinion/end-gas-flaring-or-stop-oil-production/.