02-09-07 A World Bank survey has listed Nigeria and 15 other oil producers, as countries that have "progressively" reduced gas flaring between 1995 and 2006.
"Nigeria is gradually reducing its flaring output. Nigeria, which for years was the No. 1 flarer, has been gradually reducing its output with the help of the World Bank," it said.

The survey, which was commissioned by the World Bank's Global Gas Flaring Reduction partnership (GGFR), was executed by scientists at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It said the satellite data observed that Algeria, Argentina, Bolivia, Cameroon, Chile, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Libya, North Sea, Norway, Peru, Syria, UAE and US (offshore) and Nigeria had progressed in the reduction of gas flaring during the period under review.
The report stated that 22 countries on the other hand had increased gas flaring over the last 12 years. They are 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.

The bank said 9 countries had "largely stable gas flaring in the past 12 years." They are Australia, Ecuador, Gabon, Iran, Kuwait, Malaysia, Khanty-Mansiysk (Russian Federation), Romania and Trinidad and Tobago.
The survey stated that oil producing countries and companies burned about 170 bn cm of natural gas world wide or nearly 5 tcf in 2006. It said the figure is equivalent to 27 % of total US natural gas consumption and 5.5 % of total global production of natural gas for the year. The total US market value would have been about $ 40 bn, if the gas had been sold to the country instead of being flared, it added.

It also said that gas flaring emits some 400 mm tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, which add up to the effects of global warming.
"Gas flaring not only harms the environment by contributing to global warming, but isalso a huge waste of a cleaner source of energy that could be used to generate much needed electricity in poor countries around the world," the manager of the bank's GGFR partnership, Bent Svensson said. "In Africa alone about 40 bn cm of gas are burned every year, which if put to use could generate half of the electricity needed on that continent," Svensson said.

The GGFR initiative was started in 2002 between the World Bank and the Government of Norway and it now has 12 countries and 10 major oil companies, as partners. GGFR's main goal is to bring all major stakeholders around the table so that they can together reduce the barriers to eliminate gas flaring to minimum levels. These main barriers include lack of an effective regulatory framework for associated gas utilisation, lack of markets and lack of infrastructure to take the gas to those markets.
The GGFR partnership, managed and facilitated by a team at the World Bank in Washington, DC, includes the following partners, Algeria (Sonatrach), Angola, Cameroon, Canada (CIDA), Chad, Ecuador and Equatorial Guinea. Others are France, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Khanty-Mansiysk (Russia), Nigeria, Norway, UK. Foreign Commonwealth Office, the US Department of Energy (DOE), BP, Chevron, ENI, ExxonMobil, Marathon Oil, Hydro, Shell, Statoil, Total, OPEC Secretariat and the World Bank.