Part III: Flare Reduction Project Family - IPIECA

Section 7. Flare Reduction Project Family
SECTION 7.
FLARE REDUCTION PROJECT FAMILY
7.1 Overview
This section is a continuation of the Oil and Natural Gas Industry Guidelines for Greenhouse
Gas Reduction Projects (IPIECA and API, 2007), referred to as the General Project Guidelines.
It is the third greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction “project family” in an ongoing process of
developing guidelines for project activities of interest to the oil and natural gas industry.
This project family addresses GHG emission reductions associated with reduced flaring activities
from oil and natural gas operations. Guidelines are provided following the framework presented
in Section 2 of the General Project Guidelines (IPIECA and API, 2007). The focus is on specific
technical considerations and aspects rather than policy considerations. Case studies of three
potential applications are provided in Attachment 1.
7.2 Introduction
Flares are important safety and emission control devices in the oil and natural gas industry.
Flaring, which combusts hydrocarbon gas streams, is necessary to prevent uncontrolled releases
to the atmosphere and to relieve dangerous equipment overpressure conditions. Flaring is
generally preferable, in terms of both safety and GHG emission considerations, to venting, i.e.,
the release of uncombusted gas to the atmosphere.
The most recent data reported by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) indicate that
approximately 97×10 9 cubic meters (m 3 ) [3.4×10 12 cubic feet (ft 3 )] of natural gas are flared
annually, or about 2.7 percent of all natural gas production worldwide. 3 This flared gas is
equivalent to almost 15 percent of the annual natural gas consumption in the U.S. The EIA also
estimates that the U.S. flares or vents only about 0.55 percent of its gross natural gas production
and about 3.8 percent of the total amount of natural gas flared and vented worldwide. As shown
in Table 7-1, the top 20 countries accounted for the flaring of 86.1 billion cubic meters, which is
over 88 percent of the total flaring in the world in 2006. 3
Flared gas is not tracked separately from vented gas within the U.S. oil and natural gas
production sector. The states voluntarily report monthly combined volumes of natural gas
vented and flared using Form EIA-895A. EIA then reports all of this as flared gas in compiling
its annual GHG inventories. Venting volumes are not included in the data for other countries
listed in Table 7-1.
3 Energy Information Administration, August 22, 2008.
http://www.eia.doe.gov/international/RecentNaturalGasProductionAllTypes.xls
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