The International Energy Agency (IEA) recently claimed that up to 70% of methane emitted by the energy sector goes unreported. This figure includes emissions from coal and bioenergy as well as oil and natural gas. Disturbingly, the World Bank’s 2022 Global Gas Flaring Tracker report warns that efforts to reduce global gas flaring volumes have stalled over the last decade and significant progress in some countries has failed to offset flaring increases in others. Indeed, a kilogramme of methane emitted into the atmosphere can trap more than 25 times more heat than a kilogramme of emitted CO2. So clearly, the reduction of methane emissions is of critical importance.

‘In 2021, 144bn m3 of natural gas was needlessly burnt in flares at upstream oil and gas facilities across the globe, resulting in approximately 400mn tonnes of CO2e emissions, of which 361mn tonnes CO2e was in the form of CO2 and 39mn tonnes methane. Ending this wasteful and polluting practice is central to the broader effort to decarbonisation oil and gas production,’ said the World Bank report.

In March, the 12 members of the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (now 13 since Qatar Energy joined last month) agreed to all but eliminate their methane emissions by 2030, as well as promising to put more effort into seeing that other producers slash emissions, whether voluntarily or through strengthened regulations.