There really is nothing a bad as waste, and in our sector, flaring is the single biggest waste of resources. It is a major source of CO2 and a complete waste of an otherwise valuable fuel. According to the world bank global flaring in 2010 was 134 billion cubic metres (4.7 Trillion cubic feet). This is equivalent to 15-20% of the natural gas consumption of the USA. The CO2 released is 390 Million tons.
So its nice to read about efforts to reduce this monumental waste.
The month of March 2011 had the lowest natural gas burning since August 2004 with a volume of 3.7 million m³ / d, confirming the downward trend of burning in recent months. There was a decrease of 49.2% in burn compared with March 2010 and 24.0% over the previous month, February 2011.
That was the results of efforts in Brazil, not one of the biggest culprits, but a major and growing source of hydrocarbons.
They don't say how they managed it, but the only way to reduce flaring is to somehow monetise the gas, a difficult prospect in remote locations, especially for low volumes. Developments in floating LNG or re-injecting the gas to increase oil production are the normal methods. Small scale GTL may be a future solution.
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