Comments: Upstream Industry Must Embrace Bright Ideas To Curb Flaring

_ Flaring volumes are rising globally even as ambitions and projects aimed at curbing the practice continue to grow. The World Bank, which has called for a global effort to end routine flaring by 2030, reported last year that the needle is moving in the wrong direction. An estimated 162 Bcm of natural gas (more than 5. 7 Tcf) was flared worldwide in 2024, up by nearly 3 Bcm (106 Bcf) from the previous year. Updated estimates released this year show that just nine countries account for 83% of global flaring volumes. In descending order, they are Iran, Iraq, Russia, Venezuela, Algeria, Mexico, Libya, the US, and Nigeria. With less than 4 years remaining until the 2030 target, and flared volumes still equivalent to all of Africa’s annual gas consumption, it is difficult to imagine enough of the world’s largest oil producers reaching the finish line on this issue. Shell, which produces around 1. 9 million BOE/D, said it eliminated routine gas flaring across its upstream-operated projects in 2025. The benchmark was achieved less than 4 years after the London-based supermajor announced its goal. However, the company also noted in its 2024 sustainability report that almost half of its flaring came from projects in Nigeria, assets it has since divested. So, while a target was met, technology appears to have played a limited role. But for operators with long-term commitment to their assets, technology and strategy remain very much on the table. In the Delaware Basin, which spans parts of Texas and New Mexico, operators such as Devon Energy have worked to optimize operations to address both flaring and forced shut-ins. The key step for Devon was installing automated chokes on its wells rather than relying on field operators to travel to wellsites and manually restrict flow. At the SPE Permian Basin Energy Conference last year, Devon engineers said the technology has mitigated sudden surges of oil or gas that can trigger flaring and emergency shutdowns at facilities handling as much as 20, 000 B/D. As a result, the methane intensity of the company’s Delaware operations has dropped by more than 90%. Fellow Permian Basin operator Occidental Petroleum (Oxy) said in its 2025 climate report that it has maintained zero routine flaring in the Permian since 2022. The company, which was the first US oil and gas producer to sign the World Bank’s Zero Routine Flaring initiative, said it adopted new operating procedures and installed vapor recovery units to minimize both venting and flaring. Oxy has also secured permits in the US to use more than 65 wells for gas storage as part of its flaring-reduction strategy. In addition, the company said it has reduced flaring at its operations in Oman by 80% by adding gas compressors and through rich-gas injection. Another option is emerging for onshore producers. Presented last year in SPE 229088, a trailer-mounted system was designed to convert flared gas into low-carbon liquefied natural gas (LNG). During field trials conducted in Texas in 2024, the technology processed between 0. 5 and 1. 1 MMscf/D of associated gas, producing 12 to 15 tons of LNG per day with zero flaring or venting. The company behind the system, Houston-based Macaw Energies, reported that a single mobile unit can either support 1, 300 horsepower of gas-engine capacity, fuel up to 40 LNG trucks per day, or provide enough energy to charge approximately 110 electric trucks daily. More on this technology can be found in a JPT feature article from February. The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) has recently shared results of its own mobile solution that is designed to compress associated gas rather than turn it into LNG. In SPE 222264, a 2024 paper synopsized by JPT here, authors from ADNOC explained that the mobile wellhead compressor unit was deployed during a 14-day well test, capturing 3. 5 MMscf/D of gas and routing it to a central processing facility. The gas, which would otherwise have been flared, represented a value of approximately 800, 000 over the deployment period. A 2025 paper, SPE 225463 by Petroleum Development Oman (PDO), details how a technology called a rotary vane compressor helped eliminate flaring and gas emissions from six of its processing facilities. PDO said the project reduced operating costs while removing 45, 000 tons of CO2 emissions. Saudi Aramco has also evaluated flare-gas recovery technologies, including liquid ring compressors, which are reportedly ideal for wet- or corrosive-gas streams that can shorten the lifespan of elastomer seals. In SPE 227364, Aramco authors said the technology should be considered for “continuous recovery” in both brownfield and greenfield applications, citing its simple design, low maintenance requirements, and ability to provide oil-free compression. In a nutshell, the compressors allow unprocessed gas to be stored and used later—or possibly monetized. There is another approach that involves a much larger-scale effort. In January, the Iraqi government said it had reduced flaring by more than 70% through the expanded capture of associated gas. Previously, Iraq was estimated to flare between 600 and 635 Bcf of associated gas each year while importing roughly twice that volume from Iran. An S and G. Nastase, Bin Jabr Energy. SPE 227364 - Turning Flared Gas Into Energy via Flared-Gas Recovery System (FGRS) by A. H. Alghamdi, Saudi Aramco.