Gas Flaring

Gas flaring is the burning of natural gas in an open flame at oil wells, oil fields and processing plants, instead of using or selling it. When oil is pumped out of the ground, natural gas often comes up with it. This is called associated gas. If there is no pipeline or market for this gas, companies often burn it off in a tall chimney called a flare stack.

You may have seen these flames at night near oil fields: each one is valuable fuel being burnt for nothing.

Why do companies flare?

There are two main reasons: safety and money.

• Safety: Gas can build up suddenly in equipment during start-ups, breakdowns or emergencies. Burning it in a controlled flame prevents explosions. This is called safety flaring, and it is accepted as necessary.
• Economics: Building pipelines or plants to collect gas from remote oil wells is costly. When the gas is worth less than the cost of capturing it, companies simply burn it. This everyday burning during normal production is called routine flaring. It is the main target of global efforts.

Why is burning better than releasing?

Natural gas is mostly methane, a very powerful heat-trapping gas. When methane is burnt, it turns into carbon dioxide (CO₂) and water. CO₂ also causes warming, but much less per kilogram than methane over the short term. So flaring is less harmful than venting (letting the raw gas escape straight into the air). But it is still wasteful and polluting, and far worse than capturing and using the gas.

How a flare works, and where it goes wrong

A flare stack carries the gas up and lights it at the top, often with a small pilot flame that is always burning.

1. Gas from the well or plant is sent through pipes to the flare stack.
2. At the tip, it mixes with air and burns.
3. If the flame burns well, almost all methane becomes CO₂ and water.
4. If the flame is weak, blown by wind, or goes out, unburnt methane escapes.

Regulators usually assume flares destroy about 98% of the methane. But a study published in the journal Science in 2022 (Plant and others) flew aircraft through flare plumes in the three US basins that do about 80% of US flaring (Permian, Eagle Ford and Bakken). It found only about 91% was destroyed, partly because some flares were unlit. That meant flares released about five times more methane than official estimates assumed.

How big is the problem?

The World Bank tracks flaring worldwide using satellite data.

• According to its 2025 report, global flaring reached 151 billion cubic metres (bcm) in 2024, the highest level since 2007. This released about 389 million tonnes of CO₂-equivalent, including 46 million tonnes as unburnt methane.
• Its 2026 report, as reported in the media, put flaring at 167 bcm in 2025, the third year of increase.
• The nine biggest flaring countries are Russia, Iran, Iraq, the United States, Venezuela, Algeria, Libya, Mexico and Nigeria. Their share of world flaring rose from 65% in 2012 to 76% in 2024.
• Russia is the world's largest flaring country.

Where did global action come from?

Flaring has been common since the early days of the oil industry, when gas had little market value. Global efforts began with the World Bank-led Global Gas Flaring Reduction Partnership (GGFR), set up in 2002 [Unverified]. In 2015, the World Bank and the UN Secretary-General launched the Zero Routine Flaring by 2030 (ZRF) initiative. Under it, governments and oil companies promise:

• no routine flaring in new oil fields, and
• an end to routine flaring at existing fields by 2030.

Endorsers must report their flaring every year. In December 2023, at COP28, the World Bank widened GGFR into the Global Flaring and Methane Reduction (GFMR) Partnership, which also covers venting and leaks.

India's position and Indian examples

India is a smaller flaring country than the big oil producers, because it produces relatively little oil and has a large domestic demand for gas. India's largest producer, ONGC (Oil and Natural Gas Corporation), says it has cut flaring sharply and aims to bring avoidable flaring to zero by 2030. It is seeking technology partners for this.

Capturing flared gas also fits India's goal of a gas-based economy, in which natural gas forms a larger share of the energy mix (target: 15% by 2030). Gas that is flared in India is gas that would otherwise reduce costly LNG imports.

Commonly confused concepts

• Flaring vs venting vs fugitive emissions: Flaring burns the gas. Venting releases the gas on purpose without burning it. Fugitive emissions are unplanned leaks from valves, pipes and tanks. Venting and leaks release raw methane, so they warm the planet more than flaring.
• Routine vs safety flaring: Routine flaring happens during normal production because capture is not set up. Safety flaring protects workers and equipment in emergencies. Global targets aim to end routine flaring, not safety flaring.
• Associated vs non-associated gas: Associated gas comes out along with oil. Non-associated gas comes from fields that hold mainly gas. Flaring is mostly a problem of associated gas.
• Gas flare vs solar flare: A solar flare is a sudden burst of energy from the Sun's surface. It has nothing to do with oil fields.

Issues, criticism and the way forward

• Wasted energy: The gas flared each year could supply the needs of many countries, while many people in the developing world still lack clean cooking fuel.
• Health and local pollution: Flares release soot (black carbon), nitrogen oxides and other pollutants. Communities near flares, for example in Nigeria's Niger Delta, have long complained of health and crop damage. Black carbon that settles on snow and ice also speeds up melting in the Arctic.
• Weak enforcement: Many countries have flaring rules but little monitoring. Satellite data and aircraft studies show actual flaring and methane loss are often higher than reported.
• Economics: In remote fields, capture may cost more than the gas is worth, especially when prices are low.
• Way forward: Experts point to building gas-gathering pipelines; using the gas on site to make electricity; compressing it into CNG or turning it into LNG or chemicals; pushing it back into the oil field (reinjection) to help oil recovery; making sure flares stay lit and burn well; and stronger, satellite-backed monitoring with penalties for routine flaring.

Concepts to Know

• Natural gas: A fuel gas found underground, mostly made of methane. It is used for cooking (PNG), vehicles (CNG), power plants and fertiliser factories.
• bcm (billion cubic metres): A unit for measuring large volumes of gas. One cubic metre is the space of a box one metre long, wide and high.
• CO₂-equivalent (CO₂e): A common unit that converts the warming effect of different gases into the amount of CO₂ that would cause the same warming.
• Black carbon: Fine black soot from incomplete burning. It absorbs sunlight, warms the air and darkens snow and ice so they melt faster.
• Barrel of oil equivalent (boe): A unit that expresses oil and gas output together, by converting gas into the amount of oil that holds the same energy.